


For the World of Two (One) Moons

by LightMage



Category: Assassination Classroom, Elfquest
Genre: Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, all assclass characters - Freeform, ill answer any questions on elfquest references, mentions of Elfquest characters, more important character names will appear as their arcs arrive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-05 18:59:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11584161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightMage/pseuds/LightMage
Summary: On the world of two moons, elves and humans are finally at peace with one another. That is until a creature blows up Mother moon and plans to do the same to their planet, Abode, within a year's time. The only thing stopping it is a class full of rejected students from all races. Helped by the human-centric government, they are assigned the task of assassinating their teacher.An Assassination Classroom/Elfquest crossover.





	1. Class N/A - Cheetsheet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little info beforehand of what's what, who's who.

This is a crossover of Assassination Classroom (based on a mix of the English manga and anime) and the world of Elfquest. This takes place in the future of World of Two Moons*, or Abode, following the comics until about the prologue for The Final Quest (which I haven't read), so spoilers are a given. You can get by without having read Elfquest as I'll probably explain stuff unconsciously. This also has nothing to do with Futurequest, but it does use similar ideas to a short spinoff where the main character, Cutter, was born half-elf, half-human.

  * Koro-sensei - Elf? Human??? Troll??????? who knows
  * Karasuma Tadaomi - Human
  * Peacemaker (Irina Jelavic) - Elf (tribe: unknown? Wolfrider? Go Back?); her name is a play on the Spirit Maker spider in Elfquest and Irina is a variant spelling of Irene, the name of the Greek goddess that personified peace (or so google says); Soul Name*: Irina (was her given name but she started using a tribe-name when she became an assassin) (possible descendant of Aroree)
  * Kataoka Megu - Half-Elf; has human name; Soul Name: same as given
  * Maehara Hiroto - Human
  * Sene (Okano Hinata) - Elf (tribe: Sun Folk? Jack-wolfriders?); Soul Name: same as given - pronounced "sunny" (possible descendant of Windkin)
  * Isogai Yuuma - Human
  * Yurufuwa/Kurahashi Hinano - Half-Elf; tribe-name is a Japanese word mentioned on her wiki meaning "warm, gentle person"; she has a human name but likes having a tribe-name; Soul Name: same as given (possible descendant of Tyleet)
  * Kimura Masayoshi/Seigi - Half-Elf; has human name that is an alternate spelling of his soul name and only his close family and friends call him Seigi; Soul Name: Seigi
  * Kayano Kaede - Human
  * Shiota Moonshore - Half-Elf; has a tribe-name given by his (human) mother (nagisa mean beach/shore), but also uses human surname; Soul Name: Nagisa (possible descendant of Salt, possible descendant of Door)
  * Rio (Nakamura Rio) - Elf (tribe: Go Backs?); Soul Name: same as given (possible descendant of Yun, possible descendant of Mender)
  * Mimura Kouki - Human
  * Yada Touka - Human
  * Takebayashi Koutaro - Human
  * Fuwa Yuzuki - Human
  * Sugino Tomohito - Half-Elf; has human name; Soul Name: same as given
  * Hayami Rinka - Half-Elf; has human name; Soul Name: same as given
  * Okajima Taiga - Human
  * Kanzaki Yukiko - Half-Elf; has human name; Soul Name: same as given (possible descendant of Kahvi)
  * Yoshida Taisei - Human
  * Hara Sumire - Human
  * Sugaya Sousuke - Half-Elf; has human name; Soul Name: same as given (possible descendant of Yun)
  * Okuda Manami - Human
  * Highsight (Chiba Ryuunosuke) - Elf (tribe: Wolfriders); name references his sniper skills; Soul Name: Ryuo
  * Hazama Kirara - Human (rumored to have elf blood)
  * Muramatsu Takuya - Half-Elf; has human name; Soul Name: same as given
  * Firehair (Akabane Karma) - Elf (tribe: splinter Wolfriders); tribe-name is a reference to Teir's nickname for Ember (who has the same hair color); Soul Name: Karma (possible descendant of Ember)
  * Itona Horibe - Half-Elf; has human name; Soul Name: same as given
  * Terasaka Ryouma - Human (rumored to have troll blood)
  * Ritsu - Still a computer program, but specifically modeled to look like a Human.



*Soul names are the name the universe gives an elf, their True Name if you will, that their parents learn by sending to their infant upon birth. The "Soul Name" concept seems to be exclusive to Wolfriders because in other elf tribes their "soul name" is their given name, making it lose its significants and power over the elf. Learning an elf's Soul Name (that is not their given name) gives you power over the elf because you learn the elf's soul itself. This is why when Wolfriders Recognize**, the other elf learns their soul name, it is a sign of trust to give it to another person.

**Recognization is, at its simplest, a connection of souls and a call of joining (sex). It is exclusive to elves as their souls are proven to be an actual "physical" thing. Recognization, in more complex understanding, is when two souls are familiar to one another and, in most cases, have a child of their best assets to ensure survival. "In most cases" because Recognization (in a deluded/non-true form) can happen between those of the same-sex, or just those not sexually compatible, and their souls are described as siblings as opposed to mates.  
(Doesn't mean they can't "join" though, as elves don't understand the concepts of sexual orientation, gender identity, or being monogamous. They like who they like and can pursue many "lovemates" and continue to do so even after they find a "lifemate" if they want. If they want a different name, all they have to do is say so (sometimes a new name is given though if felt it needed (to better suit the elf) or earned (like a sign of growing from child to adult). Elves also don't understand jealousy, despite the ability to feel it (and then quickly get over it). I can tell you canon instances if you're curious!)

Races:  
Elves - Generally shorter than most humans, due to evolution to become a more profitable form than the extreme height and thinness of the High Ones. Their bodies are still incredibly thin compared to humans, seemingly because of a high metabolism. Their eyes are larger and more slanted than humans, taking up most of their face, and have small noses. Their ears are long and pointed, their tips reaching a few inches above the top of their heads, and they only have four fingers.  
Humans - They are shown to be lankier than humans of Earth, with small eyes and long limbs. Their ears are small and round, too, and have five-fingers.  
Trolls - Though they exist, they keep to themselves, refusing to interact with humans and elves alike. I don't feel I need to describe them as they won't be a part of the story (or so I plan but who knows).  
Preservers - small elf-like sprites without ears and the ability to cocoon things within their spit to halt their time (only at Palace and with elf tribes)

(Skip this history explanation if you want)

The World of Two Moons' inhabitants had finally reached a peace with one another. It all began with Shuna, the second human to ever be adopted by elves and debatably the first instance of a half-human, half-elf. Her elven mother, Leetah the healer, had predicted that she would have a special power, and Shuna discovered it after a few years. She was to be a bridge between the warring races, changing the world.

Her efforts had been successful, even more so after Leetah lengthened her life upon request. It helped that there were elves and humans alike wondering, nomadic. They learned from their encounters, mostly from the humans' side, for they always tried to label what they couldn't understand. Shuna herself called elves 'good spirits', as opposed to 'demons'.

Nomadic elves were the first to actually settle themselves in human settlements, dangerous or not before they were all joined by the call of the Palace. Though delighted by the proof of their ancestral home, they stayed where they were, choosing to belong to a human tribe rather than an elven one. They sparked the idea of elves joining with humans, beyond just being allies.

**"Why wouldn't it be possible?" they asked. "How do you think Two-Edge was born?"**

**"But Two-Edge's other half was** troll **, not human!" others said. "Trolls came from the same world across the stars as elves. Humans are not, so it probably wouldn't work."**

**_*But Wolfriders' have wolf blood in them,*_ one elf woman thought. _*They were born of the High One, Timmain, joining with a creature from this planet. There's no reason it shouldn't work.*_**

And so the elf woman sought out a human lovemate, making her intentions clear. It was hard, most of the men fleeing at the sounds of her pleasured cries, human ears not able to handle their pitch. So she waited. If it was true that humans were once bears but now this, there would be a time where their senses peaked.

It took eights upon eights, so long that humans began living in 'Con-trees' instead of tribes, their numbers higher than ever. And their abilities had growth with it. She began her search again and was successful. She didn't expect a normal pregnancy, why would she, but she also didn't expect that the child could die before even being born. She learned that despite humans' high reproduction rate, there were times it just didn't work and that it was dependant on so many more factors than elves'. 'Don't move around so much, don't put any stress on yourself, don't eat foods that can disrupt your perception and bodily functions...'

There was so many, some seeming quite ridiculous at how impossible they were to avoid, but then it hit her. The dreamberries, debatably hallucinatory to elves, but highly poisonous to humans. She hadn't followed the rules of humans. Her next child was born within less than the time it takes an elf to bear life, but sickly.  
She called for the Palace, for healers, and she was answered. Leetah, lifemate and all but one child dead, herself treated her child, but the new mother didn't miss the look that was given. What would you expect, she was already half of the way to being a second Winnowil, creating an, at the time, unnatural being out of sheer curiosity. She loved her child though, as human appearing as they were with the unmistakable large, pointed ears of an elf.

It wasn't until the child Recognized themself that what the mother realized what she had stumbled upon. It had been almost too easy for a half-blooded child to be born, always had been if the Wolfriders were anything to go by. They had the magical gifts of elves but were mortal thanks to wolf blood, but what if price of lost immortality caused an increase in reproduction?

She discussed this with both the Palace Dwellers' elders and human leaders, telling how that out of all elves, only Wolfriders and Go Backs, a suspected splinter of the ancient tribe, had the highest chances of cubs being born than all others because of their short, mortal lives. It was almost like a sign when a search showed that she wasn't the only one that had done this.

As more and more half-elf children were born, the more accepting it became. Rules were then set in place so that they could live among both worlds, not torn between them like Two-Edge. There was also research done, showing how the half-blooded pregnancies worked, for reassurance that this would not be hazardous in any way to either mother or child. It was found that:

'Half-elf, half-human pregnancy range between 9 months (human norm) and 2 years (elf norm), as well as their appearances. It is shown this amount of time determines if they'll have a more human or elf look, but they generally are all born with five-fingers (like humans) and large pointed ears (like elves). This time also affects their aging process, elven children growing quickly before slowing down, so it is easier to count their ages as elves and then convert it to what they'd be in human ages based on maturity levels. These pregnancies are more often than Recognization, but less often than humans, and it tipped the population in favor of both.

Most half-elves are raised by their parents in their infantile stage, then sent to the Palace of the High Ones to learn the ways of their elven ancestors when they are about four and two turns old, a comparable age to a three years old human. They learn elven history and hunting, the basic things, until they are old enough to enter a human school to learn from that part of the now mixed society, if they so wish. They may live between them or one primarily, whatever they believe is the right path. (It is also possible for any full-blooded children, of either race, to undergo this, if they so wish.)'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't happy with the first draft of this story, so I just started rewriting it to a preferable way. As of 8/2/17, there were four chapters and they have either been deleted or edited. Everything after that is a slight rewrite.


	2. Class 0 - Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics - narration  
> Bold - flashback  
> * * + Italics - thoughts  
> ** ** + Italics - sending  
> " " - speaking  
> Half-human - more human appearance  
> Half-elf - more elf appearance

Students sat quietly, waiting in anticipation for their teacher to arrive. Many of the elven-blooded class members could sense him drawing closer at rapid speed, but even the full-blooded humans could tell when he landed outside. His touch-down had shaken the ground from the force created from his sudden stop, which would normally kill anyone else, but instead just kicking up dust around him.

They could hear him coming down the hall now, the distinct sound of his tentacles flopping against the floor and pulling off like suction cups. Within moments the teacher entered, setting his attendance book on his podium.

"All right, people..." he said smugly. "Let's get started, shall we? Class monitor, if you would do the honors!"

Moonshore, a small half-elf boy with silvery-blue hair, mumbled uncertainly before standing up. "Ready!" he yelled out, followed by the rest of the class standing. Each held a gun, varying from person to person, from pistol to rifle.

"Aim!"

Everyone held their gun at the ready, steadying their hands best they could. Their teacher's permanent smile seemed more like a grin in such a tense moment.

"Fire!"

Almost instantly the classroom was filled with the sound of gunfire, practically deafening from the close range. To their teacher, the bullets moved in slow motion as he dodged every one of them at incredible speed.

"Oh! Oh, my," the teacher said, feigning surprise. "Well, why don't I just call roll while you children wear yourselves out?" To be properly heard, he yelled as he began roll call, "Isogai?"

The student in question, Isogai, calmly replied, "Here."

"What's that?" the teacher questioned in a laughing manner. "I'm afraid I couldn't make it out over all the gunfire!"

"Here!" The human boy right in front of him repeated, louder.

"Okajima?"

"Here!" A human boy with a buzz cut yelled.

"Sene?"

"Here!" An elf girl responded.

"Kataoka?"

"Here!" A half-human girl said confidently.

"Kayano?"

"Here!" A human girl with green hair said as if surprised.

On and on it went, the students responding to their names being called while keeping the open fire on their teacher. Eventually, they stopped when they reached the end of roll call, exhausted from their efforts.

"Excellent," their teacher said happily, having not even broken a sweat while his students stood, panting. "All present and accounted for. No tardies, congratulations!" The teachers face turned a reddish-orange color with a darker circle around his face.

Rio, an elf girl with long blonde hair, sighed, "He's fast."

"The whole class opened fire and he doesn't even have a scratch," Isogai agreed.

_Yup, we're assassins... and our target... is our teacher._

"No luck today either, ay? That's too bad," their teacher said, catching his class' attention. "What's the lesson here? Numbers are no substitute for inventiveness, perhaps? You're relying too much on the 'Spray and Pray' method. Considering your line of sight, where you're aiming, your trigger finger... Your method is too predictable.

"I get you're trying to cast the net as widely as possible, so to speak," he explained. "But the approach lacked originality. When the target clocks at Mach 20, an assassin has to think outside the box."

"Heh, right," Maehara, a dirty-blond human boy, exclaimed. "Mach 20? Are you really dodging all these bullets?"

"He's got a point," a half-elf boy, Sugino, behind him agreed. "I mean, they're more like BB's than bullets... For all we know, you just stood there and took them like a champ."

Various other students started adding they're two cents at this, causing a ruckus in the room.

All their teacher could do was sigh, "Okay. Someone, please hand me a gun that's loaded."

Sene, being seated in the front row, complied, handing over her pistol.

"As was explained," the teacher continued once the gun was in his 'hand'. "These bullets-- BB's-- are harmless to you, but..." He paused, shooting at one of his tentacles he had raised into view before continuing, "Able to split myself like a knife through warm tofu."

Both ends of his shot tentacle flailed about, spraying a yellow liquid around the front of the room. "Anti-Me BB's, developed by your government for that express purpose.

"Of course, I can regenerate lost limbs and such in a few seconds," he said, demonstrating that power as well, a new tentacle sprouting from the severed end. "A luxury you won't have if you accidentally shoot your eye out."

Everyone looked from the wriggling tentacle discarded on the floor to their teacher, gasping at the thought he had proposed.

"From now on, no discharging guns in the classroom. Safety first!" he decided as his yellow head became striped with green lines and his smile turned smug. "And good luck killing me before graduation. You're going to need it!

"Now please put away your guns, pick up all the bullets, and let's get this room in order," the teacher said as his face returned to normal, ignoring the complaints of his students. "It's time to start class."

_Kunugugigaoka Junior High, Class 3-E, the assassination classroom. The bell rings, another day begins._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll happily answer any questions regarding Eldquest references!


	3. Class 1 - Killing Time in Homeroom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics - narration  
> Bold - flashback  
> * * + Italics - thoughts  
> ** ** + Italics - sending  
> " " - speaking  
> Half-human - more human appearance  
> Half-elf - more elf appearance

The students took their seats after they finished cleaning and class began as normal. Moonshore sat in the second row, absentmindedly messing with his side-bangs. He looked up when he heard his teacher speak.

"Okay... Kimura," their teacher finished writing on the chalkboard, lifting four tentacles of different colors to point at each answer. "Which one of my tentacles is pointing to the sentence with the relative clause?"

Kimura was a half-human boy with spiked dark hair that sat in the front, his seat across the room and closest to the main door. He paused to think before answering, "The blue one?"

"Correct!" their teacher beamed, face turning reddish-orange and lifting his tentacles to signify a double circle. " 'The boy who is standing' employs the 'who' as a relative pronoun!"

Kayano, the human girl in the seat between Moonshore and the window, let her gaze drift to outside as their teacher continued their lesson. She turned to the half-elf boy next to her. "Hey, Moonshore, check it out."

He turned to see she was pointing at the top window, where you could see the clear sky outside.

"It's noon..." she continued. "And you can still see the crescent Mother Moon."

_How did this happen? How did we get here? I mean, as far as I know, it all started with two very big things kicking off_ third _year..._

Moonshore thought back, to when an explosion blinded the night sky.

_First, there was Mother Moon... one minute she's fine, the next? Kaboom, permanent crescent._

**That day Mother Moon was destroyed. Various news stations reported the incident within** minutes, **as if everyone hadn't seen.**

**"Uh... We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for this breaking news bulletin."**

**"This just in, a portion of the Mother Moon has been vaporized. Some sources estimate over seventy percent. I repeat a portion..."**

**"What does it mean? Astronomers the world over are struggling to figure out just that."**

**Elves across the world were wrought with grief. Connected by Sunstream's sending at the Palace of the High Ones, they comforted one another in the truest way possible. They remembered the story of the Daystar and Mother Moon's, of Lifegiver and** Silverseed's **, Recognization, and how Child Moon, Dawnbringer, came into the world.**

**Humans simply called this an eclipse, a scientific occurrence, but elves still mourned. They mourned for her destruction, for the Daystar's lost lifemate, for their child's loneliness. Most of all they mourned for Lifegiver and Dawnbringer's sake, for they were too important in keeping the world of two moons alive to leave their duties in this time of distress.**

_There was that... and then there was him._

**"Hello! How are you?" a large, yellow... thing... greeted as it entered the classroom. "So, I'm the one that disintegrated part of Mother Moon."**

**The whole class made a sound of confusion, almost as if in sync. This being, not recognizable as an elf, human, troll, or anything between, was the cause of such devastation?**

**"Next year I intend to do the same to our lovely planet," it explained, almost cheerfully. "But never mind that now. I'm going to be your new teacher! Isn't that exciting?"**

**_*There are so many things wrong with this picture.*_ The class collectively thought, as close to a mass sending with humans in the group could get.**

_It was a strong first impression, especially for those still reeling from the incident._

**A human man that stood next to the, admittedly, octopus-looking individual cleared his throat, "Uh... I'm Karasuma. I'm from the Ministry of Defense.**

**"What I'm about to tell you..." he paused, either finding the right words or letting them prepare for more shocking information. "Is extremely confidential. This is a top secret operation, and I need your help. To put it bluntly... I'm gonna need you to kill this thing for the sake man, elf, and troll kind."**

**Again, sounds of confusion were made by the students.**

**"Excuse me," Mimura, a human boy with a bowl cut, asked. "No offense, is this a joke? Because if that's the alien that blew up the Mother Moon--"**

**"How rude!" the 'alien' cried out defensively. "I was born and raised on Abode!"**

**That statement shocked the class almost as much as being asked to kill it. *Okay...* Moonshore thought, taking note of the 'not alien's behavior.**

**"I'm not at liberty to discuss the details of this juncture," Karasuma explained. "But he's telling the truth. His threat is all too real. As of this coming March, he will obliterate the world of two moons. Apart from you, the only people who know this are world leaders. If word of this leaks out to the public, we'll have a wide-spread panic on our hands. He must be terminated soon, and with extreme prejudice. In other words, your assignment is to..."**

**Another pause from the man before he pulled a knife from his coat and swung at the moon-killer, "Assassinate your teacher."**

**Their new 'teacher' moved with the speed of a fish heading down stream, dodging each knife slash by Karasuma, even finding time to fix up his attacker's appearance. "As you can see... he's incredibly fast! And for some reason, he likes trimming eyebrows!"**

**Karasuma stopped attacking, having demonstrated his point, "You're looking at a being so powerful he can obliterate over half a moon in seconds, so fast he's been clocked at Mach 20.** A world **where he's allowed to live is world waiting to be destroyed, plain and simple."**

**"He makes it all sound so grim, doesn't he?" their 'teacher' said, dismissing the idea as he calmly put his grooming tools away. "Cheer up! I've graciously made a proposal to the world leaders. 'Stop making fools of yourselves trying to kill me', I said. 'And let me teach Class 3-E at Kunugigaoka Junior High."**

**_**Seriously? Why?**_ Moonshore thought disbelievingly, using an open ** send **to the part of the class that would hear.**

**As if he really could hear Moonshore, despite being human, Karasuma answered, "We didn't have much of a choice. We have no idea what his motives are, but we agreed under the condition that he never harm any students. On the one hand, while he's teaching we'll be able to keep an eye on him. On the other, he'll be in close range to thirty people with the means and incentive to kill him."**

"POP!"

The sound of an air-pistol going off brought Moonshore out of his reflective thoughts. He looked to see Rio, one of the few full elves in the class, standing from her seat on his other side, gun still raised. He then saw that their monster of a teacher had caught the small bullet between two pieces of chalk.

"Rio!" their teacher exclaimed, his face bright red like a strawberry. "I distinctly remember saying no guns discharging in the classroom! Back row, young lady; think about what you've done."

"Sorry..." she told him before muttering under her breath. "Ugh. I hate how red his face gets when he's mad."

_It was surreal. Why would this thing want to be our teacher? And how are we going to assassinate him if the government can't? Those are the questions we should've asked at the start, but I guess we got distracted..._

**"Do the deed and you get ten billion in cold cash."**

**"What?!" many of the students exclaimed with varying emotions. Shock, mostly.**

**"It's only fair. Kill him, save the world. If that doesn't deserve a life on 'easy street', then what are we fighting for?" Karasuma stated, then pointed to their teacher, whose face had changed. "He doesn't think you can do it, use that. Green stripes indicate he's feeling superior; we have some experience with it..."**

**"Freaky..." one of the boys whispered. "He's like a chameleon."**

**"Truth be told, I'm not worried," the creature said. "The military couldn't kill me, why would anyone assume students could? After all, you don't even have fighter jets!"**

**"What's with the cleaning fetish?" a girl asked, as he continued to recount his tale of waxing a fighter jet mid-air as it chased him.**

**"It's all on you," Karasuma said, bringing everyone's attention back to their debriefing as two other operatives wheeled in a cart loaded with guns and a box of knives. "Find the cracks in this smug bastard's defenses and exploit them. The weapons you'll be provided are harmless to elves and humans, but extremely fatal to him. And it goes without saying, this is top secret. You must tell no-one! The clock is ticking; decide whether you'll stand for our home being blasted to space dust."**

**Some students, like Moonshore and Kayano, looked to each other, seeing if anyone else was as worried about this proposition. Over half the class, elf blood and** **not, felt uneasy at the idea of killing something that wasn't for food. This was still an 'only kill when necessary' situation though, which eased their minds somewhat.**

**"Exactly," the creature-teacher said. "So until then, I want all of you to live the remaining year of your life as productively as possible!"**

_So that's it, we have a year to live. If we can't find a way to kill our teacher, the World of Two Moons will be history._

The bell tolled, signaling the end of the period.

"Lunchtime," their teacher announced, putting down his chalk and walking over to the window. "I'm going to zip over to China for some Mapu Tofu. You have my cell number; any killers feeling especially trigger-happy today are welcome to give me a buzz."

With that, he opened the window and left at top speed, causing the classroom to feel like a small tornado and the students shielded their faces from the sudden wind.

"Must be nice to be able to fly at Mach 20..." Isogai, a human in the front row, said as the dust in the classroom settled again.

"At that speed, it's about a ten-minute flight to Sichuan Province to get authentic Mapo Tofu," Hara, a round-figured human girl, guessed.

"So, just to be clear, we've absolutely ruled out missiles?" Maehara asked. The human scratched at his honey-colored hair.

"Are you kidding?" Isogai answered his friend. "Even if we had access to that kind of hardware, he can break the sound barrier!"

"While grading!" a girl added, her voice hard to distinguish from across the class with all the others chatting as well.

Isogai nodded, "My homework even came back with a doodle on it."

"All things considered, you have to admit he's not doing a bad job," Kataoka, by the sound, said. She was one a half-human girl and one of their class representatives, along with Isogai. It was fitting, as both were very dependable.

"I know, right? I tried to assassinate him after school, but he started tutoring me on algebra and I aced the test!" Yurufuwa, a sweet half-elf girl, said excitedly. Her happy disposition was relaxing to the class, a positive light even when they were first introduced to their teacher. It was no wonder her tribal namesake was what it is.

"Yeah..." Mimura began, his tone making the happy moment short-lived. "But we're still Class E. So why work so hard for nothing? We get our grades up just in time for the world to end?"

_*Flying, super cephalopod bent on world destruction? Check. Impossible target? Check. But he might be the best damn teacher any of us has ever had.*_ Moonshore thought to himself, pulling out one of the government-issued knives to look at. _*Forget that we're all would-be assassins and that most people probably see us as average, garden-variety third years, at least on the surface. Underneath it all, though, Class E has always been different.*_

"Yo, Moony," a voice called to get his attention.

Moonshore turned to see Terasaka, a heavily-built human. From what he could compare by hear-say, this boy looked more like the stocky humans from the era of Blue Mountain's fall, than the less physically inclined ones of today. Behind him was Muramatsu, a half-human boy with teeth like a ravvit, and Yoshida, another human with coiled hair and dark skin that could rival the Sun Folks'.

"C'mere," Terasaka said, throwing his thumb to the door. "Let's go over the plan."

Moonshore simply nodded and followed the trio outside. Out front, Terasaka took to sitting in the middle of the short stairs. Yoshida followed suit, choosing the bottom step, while Muramatsu stood. Moonshore was standing as well, but he was a few paces away.

"So we know the octopus's face changes color depending on what mood he's in," Terasaka started. "Have you been keeping track like I asked? Give me the specs."

"You got it," Moonshore held up his small notepad, lifting the cover to look over what he'd wrote. We already know green stripes mean he's not taking us seriously. When a student gets a wrong answer, his face turns dark purple; and reddish-orange when a student gets the right answer. What's interesting is every day after lunch, without fail--"

"Blah blah, whatever," Terasaka interrupted, standing and pointing one of the rubber knives in Moonshore's face. "I don't need to know, you do. My plan is simple. You stab him when his guard's down."

"Yeah, about that..." Moonshore mumbled. "I--"

"Don't start, we've been over this," Terasaka got close to his face, voice almost a yell. "We're 3-E, remember? Everyone expects us to be thugs and murderers anyway! The 'End Class'. Think they shuttle us up this mountain every day for the view? Sorry to burst your bubble, man, but society don't want us.

"When do nobodies like us have a shot at the kind of cash at stake here?" Terasaka continued as he wrapped an arm around Moonshore's shoulders, pulling him closer to take right into his ear. "We're getting out of this dump any way we can! No guts, no glory. Let this be your moment to shine."

Terasaka pulled a small drawstring pouch out of his pocket. He dangled it in front of a disheartened Moonshore's face. Moonshore was confused until he was given the pouch and Terasaka's trio began to walk back to the classroom.

"Best of luck," Terasaka called over his shoulder. "And try not to blow it."

**"You hear about Moonshore? They're chucking him to Class E." Some guy laughed.**

**"Hm. Shocking. What else were they going to do?" A girl sneered.**

**"Time to unfriend him..." A boy muttered, almost upset.**

**"I don't want other people to think I know him." Another boy said in a tone that didn't hide his disgust.**

The moment Shiota Moonshore received the transfer slip, all his, now former, classmates left him. Lost in a world of despair, alone with no-one to support him because he wasn't a worthy student anymore. He was so engrossed in his thoughts he didn't hear his teacher coming back until he was landing right next to him.

Moonshore let out a surprised gasp, knocked back with unsteady feet as the ground shook underneath him. He coughed out as much of the airborne dirt as he could before turning to his teacher.

"Welcome back..." Moonshore greeted. "What's with the missile?"

"A souvenir," their teacher laughed, holding up the missile that was just barely shorter than himself. "The Navy was waiting for me in the Vastdeep."

"Must be lonely, spending your life being everyone's target," Moonshore said, silently relating their situations.

"Nah," he dismissed. "I look at it this way... Being everyone's target proves how powerful I am. Now then, inside for fifth period, please."

"Sure..." Moonshore was surprised at his teacher's outlook on life. Being hated by everyone, hunted by them, and still thinking of himself so highly? It was like a wolf that took pride in being shunned from their pack, insane and unnerving. *There's no denying it, though... He is amazing... Confident, capable... Powerful enough for people to stand up and take notice, even if they are trying to kill him. He doesn't get what it's like... to be ignored by everyone.*

**"Because of you, I received the worst teacher evaluation of my career, you unteachable brat," Kensaki-sensei, the half-human teacher of Class 3-D, told him with disdain. "At least now, I won't have to see you anymore. Far as I'm concerned, this campus can't eject you fast enough."**

_*I might actually be able to kill him.*_ Moonshore's heart raced, thinking about what his former teacher had said. His hand tightened around the pouch's string and thought of the possibilities. His vision blackened, all except for his teacher, seeing him walk away, through the corner of his eye. Like crosshairs locking on. _*After all... he'll ignore me too. Until it's too late.*_

_____

The clock ticked, the sound making the class period seem to pass at a snail's crawl. Their teacher had written numerous instruction's to proper grammar on the board before sitting on his podium.

"Okie Dokie," their teacher announced. "Your assignment this afternoon is to compose a short poem. The final line should read, 'was tentacles all along'."

"Excuse me, sir," Kanzaki, a half-elf girl with long black hair, asked, raising her hand. "Really?"

"Really," their teacher affirmed. "When you've completed the assignment, kindly bring it forward. You will be graded on creativity, grammar, and overall beauty of expression. Here's an example: 'Not the storm of garden snow, of flowers moving on, but sprouting there instead was tentacles all along'."

"Yeah, because that makes a whole lot of sense," Isogai sighed.

"You may go home once you're finished," their teacher mentioned.

"What?" Yurufuwa asked, voicing the rest of the class's unsureness. "But 'was tentacles all along'--"

"Should get those little synapses sparking and the imagination slithering," their teacher emphasized by wiggling all his own tentacles and making noises like a gurgling baby.

"Could you please knock that off?" Maehara shouted, annoyed by the sound effects.

"Um, sir?" Kayano raised her hand. "I have a question."

"What is it, Kayano?" their teacher stopped to look at her.

"I know the school year has already started, but..." she began. "What's your name? We can't really call our teacher 'strange octopus-thing we have to kill'."  
"That's a bit long, yes..." their teacher thought quizzically. "You know, I don't have a name!"

"Seems like an oversight," Sugino, a half-human seated behind Moonshore, whispered to the girl next to him.

"Yeah, a little bit," Fuwa, the human girl next to him, replied.

"Why don't you think of one for me?" their teacher suggested. "But after you finish your poem."

"Yeah, what could go wrong?" Maehara muttered, while Kayano happily agreed.

"I'll take a short break while you take up your pens," their teacher said sleepily. As he settled back into a seiza position, he closed his eyes and his face turned a soft pink.

Moonshore looked at his teacher before angling his face downward, using his bangs to hide his face. He stood, assignment paper in hand, and walked to the front.  
"Hm," their teacher looked up, hearing his student get up. "Seems the muse favors Moonshore."

Many other students looked up to watch their classmate go to hand in his assignment. Terasaka chuckled, that even from the back row he could see Moonshore held a knife hidden by his paper. Kayano gasped as her and the rest of the class saw it, too.

_*Everyday after lunch, without fail, he gets sleepy.*_ Moonshore thought; he couldn't be interrupted this time, inside his own head. _*I can tell he checks out when his face turns light pink. Kayano's question threw him off; he seems distracted. All signs point to this being the right moment. Prep school flunkies know how to slip between the cracks, it's what we do. The students of Class E are the losers... the outcasts... We have to show them they're wrong. We have to prove to everyone that 'we can do it if we really try'.*_

Moonshore stopped in front of his teacher, as close as he could without suspicion. Within seconds, he discarded the blank paper and revealed the knife. He held it in a reverse hold and swung in an outward strike at the target. There was a loud 'slap' sound as their teacher caught Moonshore's arm before he could stab him.

"What did I say about thinking outside the box?" their teacher asked gleefully, taking the knife with a handkerchief.

_*All right then, here goes nothing.*_ Moonshore thought as he lunged at his teacher, arms outstretched to hug around his neck. Around Moonshore's own neck like a necklace, was a grenade.

Terasaka quickly stood up in the back row and held out a detonation button. He grinned madly as he pressed it. The grenade exploded with a bright flash and BB's were sprayed at high speed in all directions. The students screamed as they went to duck and shield their faces from the small projectiles. Everyone knew even something that small, at a fast enough speed, could cut straight through concrete, much less their soft-fleshed bodies.

The flash and the smoke from the bomb had concealed what had happened to the two closest to the blast. The fact that the smoke hadn't disappeared yet didn't detour Terasaka and his friends from crying out in triumph as their successful assassination. The others, though, looked on in horror, worried for their classmate's safety.

"Moonshore...?" Kayano whispered, covering her mouth.

Terasaka, Muramatsu, and Yoshida rushed to the front, yelling how they were rich thanks to this horrific scene.

"You jerks!" Isogai yelled at them as they passed his seat.

"What the drukk have you done?!" Maehara scolded as well.

"Huh," Terasaka looked down upon the blackened body of their teacher. "Never saw a suicide bomber coming, did ya?"

"Terasaka!" Kayano screamed and knocking her chair to the ground as she stood, her sadness turned to anger. "What did you give Moonshore?!"

"Huh? A toy grenade..." Terasaka looked back at her, grinning madly. "...stuffed with gunpowder and those special BB's. I'm sorry, you have a better idea? Don't worry, it wasn't enough to kill anybody. I'll pitch in on his medical bills!"

Kayano gasped at her classmate's harshness, but watch silently as Terasaka looked over Moonshore.

"Hm...?" Terasaka saw Moonshore covered in a plastic-wrap-like film, tinted yellow. Though he was definitely unconscious, for the moment, Moonshore... "Whoa, he doesn't even have a mark on him. And what the doom pit is this filmy stuff? Did the body--"

"It's not a body, it's a husk," a sudden voice said. "I shed my skin once a month or so."

Everyone looked around frantically, trying to find the source of their supposedly dead teacher's voice. Moonshore awoke in a daze, breaking the husk and emerging like he came out of a Preserver's cocoon to sit up. His ears rang from the explosion that had happened inches from his face, but otherwise, he felt fine.

"I wrapped it around your classmate to protect him from the blast," their teacher said, right above Terasaka. He hung from the ceiling, tentacles spread like a spider's web with his eye a piercing red. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you didn't see this coming."

The room seemed darker, tenser, their teacher's usually cheerful voice holding a new tune, one that sang of anger beyond imagining.

"Terasaka, Yoshida, Muramatsu..." their teacher's voice became deeper with each syllable.

* _Okay, that's a face we haven't seen before.*_ Moonshore looked to see their teacher's skin turned blacker than a shadow, head twitching. His mouth was open, showing off that all his teeth came to dull points, a mouth with only canines. His skin was wrinkled and pulled, seemingly nonexistent gums showing and eyes all but empty holes. Everyone instinctively leaned away, feeling as if they would crumble to dust if too close. _*Pitch black must mean pissed!*_

"This was your doing..." their furious teacher's voice was like creaking wood, low and drawn out. "Wasn't it?"

"Ah...!"

"Who, us?"

"It was all Moonshore!"

Each of the boys defended themselves, voices cracking with fear.

In the blink of an eye, their teacher was gone, leaving another small tornado in his wake. They didn't know where he would've gone, but felt they didn't want to know when he came back.

Their teacher rushed back in and stopped right next to the trio of boys, towering over them. The sound of clanking against the ground got their attention, directing them to look at the floor. There lay the nameplates of each of their homes, even those who hadn't been a part of the assassination attempt.

"Here's the deal, kiddos," their teacher said, gruffly. "The agreement I have with your government forbids me from harming you, but there's a catch. If you try to assassinate me like that again.. let me remind you that everyone else is fair game! Family... Friends... Everyone in the world except you if I feel like it."

_Suddenly, it's clear how hard this is going to be. We can't run, we can't hide; Slipping between the cracks isn't an option. The only way out is to kill him._

"Go on, threaten us!" Terasaka's voice shook. "I ain't afraid of no squid! You disintegrate most of the Mother Moon and tell us you're going to blow up Abode... Why shouldn't we use nasty methods to kill a nasty creature?!"

"Nasty?" their teacher's voice returning to normal, his face even a reddish-orange. A signal that they had done well. "I thought your idea was wonderful. Brilliant. Especially your contribution, Moonshore. I give you full marks for technique. Your composure was simply outstanding; Smooth and natural movements up until you grabbed me. I was totally caught off-guard. However..."

He stopped patting Moonshore's head in praise to turn and point to the other boys with a now dark purple face, "None of you cared if he was injured. Not even Moonshore himself, it seems. Students with that attitude aren't fit to assassinate anyone!

"I want you to assassinate me with a method that brings a smile to your face, believing yourself worthy of your target," he continued, a softer tone this time. "That means taking pride in what you do, in yourselves, and each other! All of you are more than the sum of your parts.

_*Shoot-out at Mach 20, reassured by a tentacle pat.*_ Moonshore thought, touching the spot his teacher had patted. _*It's a bizarre education, but one I think is starting to grow on me. I guess when you spend your whole life being invisible... Well, it's something to feel like you're being seen.*_

Their teacher chuckled as his students let his words sink in. Unbenounced to them, he thought back to a previous time, where another had been harmed on his watch. 

**The rubble of the fallen building surrounded them, piles of wall and ceiling littered everywhere in various sizing.**

**"If you're willing to give me your time..." a young, human woman asked, caressing one of the tentacles wrapped around her. "I'd like you to teach the children for me... Such wonderful tentacles... With hands like these, you could reach them. I know it, in my heart, you'll become... a fine.. teacher."**

**The tentacled person held her close, staring her in the eyes as she drifted away. He hopes that wherever human souls go, that this one finds happiness there.**

Their teacher snuffs out a smoking spot on his podium, "Well then... I have a question for you, Moonshore. I have no intention of being killed. I'll enjoy teaching you until the end of the school year, and then I'll destroy the world. What exactly are you going to do about it?"

_That's the big question, isn't it? It's not like we have a lot of experience figuring out how to save the world. I have a feeling though... One way or another, we're going to be fast learners._

"I'll kill you before I let that happen!" Moonshore answered, bowing his head with a smile. "Just you wait and see."

"That's the spirit," their teacher laughed. "Then let's see you kill me right now. No-one leaves until I am vanquished!"

"Wait to go, Moonshore!"

"This totally blows!"

The students complained, but in good fun. Moonshore returned to his seat to continue the almost forgotten assignment. He looked happily at their teacher, who had begun polishing the nameplates.

_Yup, we're assassins. Our target... is our teacher._

Students continued to grumble about their to-be-assassins situation, despite some having gotten out their guns.

"A teacher who can't be killed..." Kayano spoke her thoughts aloud. " 'Sensei' means 'teacher'... 'Korosensai' means 'can't be killed'... How about we call him 'Koro-sensei'?"

"Koro-sensei?" Moonshore asked, making sure of what she'd said, and caught their teacher's attention. "That feels right."

_Just us and Koro-sensei. Here, in our assassination classroom._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't all that different from the first draft, but I'm trying to make it more Moonshore (Nagisa) focused.  
> Anyway, when I deleted the first versions of these chapters, I didn't save my foot notes. T^T I still think Mender looks cute in his White Cold furs, and I'm starting to think that's where my idea of Karma wearing a big sweat while being creepy came from.


	4. Class 2 - No Time for Striking Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics - narration  
> Bold - flashback  
> * * + Italics - thoughts  
> ** ** + Italics - sending  
> " " - speaking  
> Half-human - more human appearance  
> Half-elf - more elf appearance

****Koro-sensei sat on a lawn chair in one of the forest clearings near their school building, seemingly oblivious to his pursuers. He sipped at a fruity drink in a to-go cup, reading a newspaper in a slightly foreign language. "Hm, the Mother Moon is all they're talking about in Djunnsland, too. I wish they'd put something more interesting on their front page."

"There he is," Sugino whispered, hiding behind a tree. "Relaxing out back before the first bell, not a care in the world. Reading a Djunnsland newspaper casually picked up from Port Bane on the way here! It's just like you told me. Thanks, Moonshore."

"You're welcome," Moonshore nodded, standing behind another tree, holding his notebook. "Shade and Sweetwater, Sugino."

"Oh yeah," Sugino said, more to himself than his friend. He held a baseball with BB's drilled into the surface. "That cool ten million is mine!"

Sugino walked out from behind the tree, enough to aim correctly without obstacles. Lifting his leg, he hunched his back and held the ball close to his chest. In the blink of an eye, he stomped his foot back down and twisted his body away from his target. His arms now far apart, the one holding the ball was behind him before he swung it forward, throwing the ball as fast as possible.

"Good morning," Koro-sensei greeted. "Moonshore, Sugino."

Their teacher was no longer in front of them, lawn chair now empty other that left behind drink and the newspaper still floating downward. They turned to see Koro-sensei behind them, lifting his tentacle to wave.

"Come now..." their teacher grinned. "You should always reply when someone greets you."

"Uh, yes, sir," Moonshore recovered quickly while Sugino looked between where their teacher was and where he had been. "Sorry, sir. Good morning."

"A baseball embedded with Anti-Me BB's?" Koro-sensei said in wonder. "Creative. Points for choosing a method of delivery quieter than the pop of a standard air rifle... Unfortunately, once airborne, the weapon gave me nothing but time. Ample opportunity, in fact, to organize a defensive maneuver. A quick visit to the equipment room and tada. I had, pardon the pun, a handy solution."

He held up the ball, his hand protected by the baseball glove he had gotten, and started tossing it up and down as he walked away. "Tick tock, children. Graduation will be here before you know it. Right, then, homeroom if you would please."

"Yes, sir..." Sugino was disappointed in himself at his failed efforts. "Dammit. Well, so much for my fastball. Big shock there, I guess."

"It was a good throw," Moonshore comforted, but his face told he had expected it to go wrong in some way.

Sugino only sighed as they started heading towards their class.

Later, Koro-sensei stood at the front of the classroom, writing on the board as he read aloud from a book. Students listened with varying interest, some jotting down notes while others leaned on their desks and watched.

"Hey, Moonshore," Kayano leaned over to her friend's desk, whispering. "I heard that you and Sugino's plan didn't go so well this morning."

Moonshore hummed to confirm her suspisions and looked behind him to where Sugino sat. He was looking down at his throwing hand, opening and closing his fingers multiple times. "You can say that. He's been depressed ever since."

"What's there to get all bent out of shape about?" Kayano wondered. "It's not like anyone else has done it."

There was a sound like a whip as Moonshore turned his head back towards the lesson. Just past his head, a yellow blur shot past him to Sugaya's desk in the very back, then retreated back to it's owner. Sugaya, a startled half-elf boy, looked down at his desk, it's blank surface staring back at him.

"Sugaya!" Koro-sensei called, making everyone look up to see him holding Sugaya's missing notebook. He had it open to look at it's contents. "Not a bad like-ness, I'll give you that, but I'm a little hurt by the jawline."

Their teacher turned the book around, showing of a pencil sketch of himself. It was drawn over with a red pen, making its head more... head-like... and a tentacle now pointing to itself. Moonshore and some others chuckled nervously.

"You don't have a jaw!" Maehara yelled at him, never one to take their teacher's joking manner light-heartedly.

_____

The bell rang, once again signaling the end of the period and the beginning of lunch. The students pulled their bags onto their desks to retrieve their packed lunches. Koro-sensei excused himself to get some food, too. _*Outside of the county, of course.*_ Moonshore thought with a smile.

"Mapo Tofu?" Isogai asked before he could leave.

"Actually, I'm catching a ball game in New Citadel," their teacher clarified, and like that he was gone in another cloud of dust.

"He sure knows how to make an exit," Yoshida commented.

"I know," Terasaka grumbled. "That thing is starting to get on my nerves."

"Talk about unfair," Yurufuwa added, tone cheery despite her, by technicality, complaining. "We're stuck here while he flies all over the world. He could at least bring souvenirs."

"Think about what he'd probably bring back," Kataoka, ever the voice of reason, proposed. "Are you that hard up for a murder shot?"

"I'm just saying an exotic snack would be nice," Yurufuwa smiled. "It's not like he has to sneak in through customs."

"You've obviously dedicated a lot of thought to this," Kataoka sighed with a small smile.

"So, hey," Isogai directed at Maehara, starting a new discussion based on the girls' talk. "What's New Citadel's main export?"

"I don't know." Maehara barely thought about the question, but jokingly guessed, "Booze?"

"Sucks we're not drinking age," his friend laughed.

"What about something greasy from one of those food trucks?" Yurufuwa giggled.

"Man, Citadel girls are hot," Okajima called from the back. "Especially the blondes! Damn, can you imagine if one came back with him as a transfer student?"

Moonshore started heading out of the classroom, not particularly involving himself in the conversation. He stopped, though, when Karasuma entered. A couple students greeted him, and he gave a short one in return.

"Report," he said, serious as always. "Any progress figuring out a way to kill him yet?"

"Define progress," Moonshore looked up at him, giving an almost sarcastic response. It was an honest way of summing up their findings, though. The other students looked crestfallen at realizing they had gotten nowhere as of late.

"Yeah, this is Class E, yo," Hazama, a very elf-like, but still human, girl leaned back in her seat. "You've gotta lower your expectations."

"All due respect, sir," Isogai stood, taking his role as one of the class representatives as means to answer Karasuma. "He's too quick. You said so yourself, he tops out at Mach 20. How are we supposed to kill something like that?"

"I don't know," Karasuma answered honestly. "But I have that faith you'll succeed where the armies of the world cannot. After all, he returns every school day to teach you. You're the only hope we've got. If you don't do something about him soon, he will destroy the World of Two Moons after your graduation. You saw what he did to the Mother Moon, that'll be our planet in a year. He's too dangerous to be left alive. That's why this classroom is the last stand between life and extinction."

_If you give a group of outcasts and misfits, like us, a chance to play hero... Things are going to get interesting, to say the least._

_*Can we do it...?*_ Moonshore thought about all Karasuma had said. _*It's a tall order, especially given everything we don't know about our target. We can't even say why Koro-sensei wants to blow up the world in the first place, let alone what he gets out of teaching us...*_

_____

The next day, lunchtime came around again. As they ate, close friends crowded around each others' desks to talk while others sat in content silence. Sugino, on the other hand, sat outside on the schoolhouse steps. He stared at his bento, only having eaten a couple mouthfuls of rice. He sighed, putting the lid back on the box and setting it to the side. He just stared at the ground until someone came up behind him.

"There you are. This may come in handy."

Sugino turned to see Koro-sensei holding out a baseball covered by his teacher's handkerchief. It was the same one he had used this morning in his assassination attempt. "Thank you, Koro-sensei."

"I polished it and got the scuff marks off it," Koro-sensei returned the ball, taking a bite out of his...

"What are you eating?" Sugino asked, face scrunching in confusion. The object was large, oblong, and covered in brown... hair?

"A coconut I grabbed on the way here," Koro-sensei said whilst chewing. "Want a bite?"

"You shouldn't eat the husk..." Sugino told him, but it was in vain as his teacher continued eating it as-was. Wasn't like a coconut husk was the weirdest non-edible thing they'd seen him eat.

"That was a nice pitch yesterday," Koro-sensei complimented.

"Yeah, right," Sugino laughed, more dishearted than happily, as he tossed the baseball up and caught it. "Says the guy that could probably throw a ball faster and farther on accident than I'll ever be able to on purpose."

"Are you on a team?"

His teacher's question made Sugino pause and he stopped tossing the ball up. He looked down at it in his hand before slumping over to hang his head. "I used to be."

"And... you're not any longer?" Koro-sensei seemed genuinely surprised.

"They... uh..." Sugino spoke quietly. "They kicked me off. Extra curricular activities are only for Class D and above. Since we're here because of our bad grades, we're supposed to focus on studying."

"Sounds suspiciously like discrimination," his teacher commented, already knowing something was wrong with this particular school's system.

"I'd had gotten booted either way," he admitted. "Come on, you saw my pitch. I'm too slow. I never struck anyone out; wound up bench-warming most of the season. I was so depressed I got just as slow hitting the books. That's why I got packed off here to the mountain."

"Sugino."

He looked to his teacher, whose face showed of misfortune to come.

"May I give you a friendly piece of advice?"

_____

_*I have to turn in this assignment before class. I think he's talking to Sugino.*_ At that same moment, Moonshore walked out of the classroom holding his notebook. He looked out the window to see his teacher and classmate sitting on the steps talking. He walked to the main entrance. _*I hope he isn't picking on him because of his assassination attempt yesterday... Oh no! It's worse than I thought!*_

When he opened the main door, Moonshore stood in shock at what he saw outside. Koro-sensei was lying on the ground holding Sugino above him. He had seemingly multiplied his tentacles and wrapped them around Sugino. He covered Sugino's mouth, as he probably tried to scream in terror. Koro-sensei had bent his student's limbs in possible, but painful directions, making him contort this way and that.

"What are you doing to him?!" Moonshore yelled as he ran down the small, grassy hill. "What happened to 'not harming the students'?!"

"There it is," Koro-sensei laughed, paying his other student little attention. "Sugino, your pitch form... You modeled it after Arita, didn't you? The pitcher who went to Majors in New Citadel. My tentacles know all and see all. Metaphorically speaking."

Sugino stopped squirming, gasping at his teacher's deducing. He let himself be lowered back to the ground as Koro-sensei continued talking.

"You shoulders are significantly less flexible than your idol's, I'm afraid. Even if you copied him exactly, you'd never be able to throw a fastball like he does."

Sugino looked like his world had been shattered, suddenly so distraught that he couldn't even defend himself. Moonshore, on the other, was scowling at their teacher.

"That's not fair," he said bitterly. "You don't know. How could you, that's ridiculous. You can't just... I get it, why even bother? 'Hey, we're just Class E, right? We're just a bunch of losers and lost causes'!"

"You misunderstand me," Koro-sensei explained, pulling a newspaper from his robe. "I base this entirely on first-hand experience... I checked him out yesterday! My tentacles know all and see all."

The newspaper was from Djunnsland, the front cover showing a picture of the famous baseball player being held by Koro-sensei just the same as he had Sugino moments ago.

_*What is wrong with you?!*_ The two students thought simultaneously.

"And look," Koro-sensei now held up a framed paper, crying now. It read: 'Damn you, tentacles'! "I even got his autograph!"

"You actually asked him for an autograph?" Moonshore shouted. "After you assaulted him?! And he signed one for you?!"

"Unbelievable, right?" Koro-sensei blubbered. "He was so nice about it, I almost died!"

"He's right, though," Sugino said as Koro-sensei continued geeking out. "Some of us are born with talent, some of us not so much..."

"Talent is relative," Koro-sensei suddenly stopped crying, grabbing Sugino's wrist to swing his arm this way and that. "Arita's wrists and elbows aren't as flexible as yours. If you learn how to use your advantage, eventually you'll be better than Arita! Trust me, my tentacles don't lie. There isn't just one way to have talent. You just need to find a method that suits your skill set."

With that, Koro-sensei walked back up to the schoolhouse.

"More flexible, huh?" Sugino looked down at his wrist in wonder. He bent his hand forward and, with manual help, it almost laid flat against his arm. "I never realized. My 'talent'..."

Moonshore looked at his friend, then looked at their teacher. He smiled and ran after him, only catching up to him outside the classroom.

"Excuse me, sir!" Moonshore stopped him. "Did you really fly all the way to Djunnsland just to give Sugino a piece of advice?"

"Why not?" Koro-sensei said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm his teacher."

"Well, it's just that most teachers I know wouldn't go that far for a student. And, I mean, here you are planning to blow up the world by the time we graduate and all that."

"Moonshore," Koro-sensei heard the true meanings of those words, how all these students knew was their teachers giving up on them. It made him think of that day, that person, again. "I became your teacher because I made a promise to someone... One I don't take lightly.

"Abode will be destroyed, yes," Koro-sensei took the notebook from Moonshore's hands, grading it at high speed. "But I'm your teacher first and foremost. Nothing beats giving you the credit you're due, not even me blowing up the world."

"Koro-sensei..." Moonshore took back his notebook, looking at his teacher's notes. "It's great getting our assignments back so quickly... but what's with the weird extra credit questions?"

The extra credit in question was a doodle of a tentacle with a bow, asking for an essay explaining why it was adorable.

"Huh?!" Koro-sensei was genuinely shocked. "I thought you'd like them..."

"It's more like a punishment."

"Well..." his teacher twirled his grading pen before bringing it to his mouth, taking a bite and face becoming striped with green. "I want you to find joy, as a student and a would-be assassin. Or something like that. You'll never kill me, but maybe that doesn't matter."

_____

Later that day, after the final bell had rung, Sugino and Moonshore stood in the sandy field in front of the schoolhouse. Sugino held a baseball, and Moonshore a catcher's glove.

Sugino did a similar pitching form to that of his earlier, but he didn't swing his body with his movement. This didn't put all the force of his throw in his arm but instead contained it to the release of the ball. He flicked his wrist just as he let go of the ball, sending it flying fast and low.

"That was amazing, Sugino!" Moonshore jumped out of the way, managing not to get hit with the ball that had enough momentum to bounce back off the hill behind him. He retrieved the ball before it could roll away, and tossed it back to his friend. "It looked like the ball disappeared!"

"I'm working on a curveball that makes full use of my wrist and elbow," Sugino laughed. "This and a changeup make for a good arsenal. Nothing Koro-sensei can't see coming from a mile away, but what're you gonna do? I'm sticking with it, though. I refuse to give up... on baseball and assassination."

Sugino threw the ball at Moonshore again, slower this time so he'd manage to catch it. Moonshore nodded at Sugino's decision, feeling this was a right step. _*With super-sonic speed and... um... multitasking tentacles, Koro-sensei definitely has the advantage. Killing him won't be easy, but still...*_

Moonshore watched Sugino ran up to a schoolhouse window, looking into the faculty room where Koro-sensei was grading paper after paper. "Can I bother you for a sec? I wanna take a couple test shots at you if that's okay."

"Glutton for disappointment?" Koro-sensei giggled, face once again striped green.

_He was such an awesome motivator. The kind of mentor that really knew how to light a fire in you. We were having, well, a ball with him._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished the anime, and I've got to say, I was disappointed. Everything after the Karma vs. Nagisa fight seemed so rushed, especially since I haven't read that part of the manga yet. I was so lost, like what did they get out of going to the space station beside retrieving classified info and finding out there's only like a 1% chance Koro-sensei will blow up? It didn't seem like they even got a chance to come up with a plan to save him before the government fucked everything up...  
> But anyway, on a happier note, my Professor Bitch keychain came today!


	5. Class 3 - The Perfect Time to Help Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics - narration  
> Bold - flashback  
> * * + Italics - thoughts  
> ** ** + Italics - sending  
> " " - speaking  
> Half-human - more human appearance  
> Half-elf - more elf appearance

Koro-sensei turned the handle on the snow cone maker, sitting on a picnic blanket in another clearing of the woods. It was peaceful, only the sounds of nature, ice being shaved... and students whispering as they watched their target.

"There he is," Kataoka notified. "He's making snow cones for snack time."

"Hey, do you think that ice really comes from farther north than the Frozen Mountains?" Mimura was curious.

"Why not?" Maehara took a look at his classmate. "He hits up every other place on the map."

"Focus," Isogai interjected. "Think of the money we're gonna split."

As a single unit, they started jogging towards Koro-sensei, calling out to him. The small group consisted of Isogai and Kataoka in the lead with Maehara, Yada, and Mimura following in a V-formation and Sene in the back. They all waved to their teacher, huge smiles on their faces and laughing.

_*Oh, are the children opening their hearts to me at last?*_ Koro-sensei was brought to tears with joy. _*Such beaming smiles!*_

As the students reached the edge of the clearing, each pulled out their Anti-Sensei knives and jumped at him from different, but direct, angles.

_*And they're trying to kill me! Such little savages!*_ Koro-sensei thought with pride. He dodged the coming knives, moving far from the blanket. After the usual clearing of dust, his students coughed and looked to where he'd fled. "Not the worst tactic you've tried, but your smiles were a bit too forced. Not convincing enough to get me to let my guard down. Now put away these silly Anti-Me knives..."

The students gasped at their empty hands, but only for them to be filled a moment later.

"...and take a moment to stop and smell, if not the roses, then these lovely specimens."

Kataoka looked at the flower upside down in her hand, it's ombre petals weren't even open in full bloom yet. Her surprise turned to anger at the sight, "Are these from the flower beds?! For you information, sir, we grew these 'lovely specimens' from seeds! Without a tree-shaper!"

"No kidding?!" Koro-sensei gawked.

"Why would you do something so mean?" Yada, a human girl with a red scrunchy, covered her mouth in shock, sounding like she would cry. Sene already was, wiping a tear from her eye. "We've been growing them for months, waiting for them to bloom..."

"I'm sorry, forgive me, children! I'll go get..." Koro-sensei apologized in a panic, flying away and coming back with arms full. "...some new bulbs for you!"

_____

Moonshore watched as Koro-sensei ran past him and straight to the planet bed under the classroom window. The group that had tried to kill their teacher followed behind, emerging from the woods. Kataoka and Sene made a beeline to where Koro-sensei was trying to plant the new tulips.

"You can't plant flowers at Mach 20!" Sene yelled at him.

"No, of course not!"

"Handle each bulb with care!" Kataoka joined in.

"Delicate, got it," Koro-sensei complied with each of their instructions.

"Hey," Maehara stood off to the side with the others. "Doesn't he want to destroy the world?"

"I thought so..." Isogai crossed his arms. " But I guess that doesn't include tulips. Kinda seems like a conflict of interest."

Terasaka sat against the supplies shed with his friends as they observed their teacher as well. Yoshisa crouched with Muramatsu standing next to him. Hazama, an intimidating human girl, stood with them, just barely seeing Koro-sensei from around the edge of the building.

"He's only trying to make himself look good," Terasaka made a noise of disdain.

By the tree line, Moonshore wrote in his notebook, taking in the scene before him.

"Hey, Moonshore," Kayano greeted as she walked up to him. "Whatcha writing in your little book?"

"It's a running list of all of Koro-sensei's weaknesses," Moonshore looked up, excited to share. "A good assassin keeps tabs on their weak spots."  
Kayano hummed as she looked over his shoulder, reading what he'd wrote so far.

Koro-sensei's _Weakness #1 - He messes up when he shows off._

"Wow," she made a face. "Is that kind of thing really a weakness?"

Moonshore's face fell. He understood that it may not be the best knowledge possible, but it was all they had so far that could be a kink in their teacher's armor. Other than that, all they had were his abilities, and those didn't tell them how to defeat him, just prove how hard it was. Moonshore studied what he wrote before his eyes widened when his notebook was suddenly taken from his hands.

"Moonshore wouldn't put it in there if it wasn't! Thank you," Sugino flipped through the pages, reading aloud as he went. "Every detail gives us an edge. 'Height: about three meters. Weight: lighter than he looks. Age: unknown... Weak Points: unknown...'

Sugino stopped, confusion written on his face, "What the drukk is this?"

"Doesn't seem like a lot to go on," Kayano giggled, trying to lighten the mood.

"Maybe not at the moment..." Moonshore smiled, voice a little worried.

_The learning curve is steep. Most classes don't have murder on the syllabus... We are the exception. Then again, we are Class 3-E. We're the exception, period._

_____

On the main campus, Karasuma, the human from the Ministry of Defense, stood with another operative in an office on the top floor. The large windows lining two walls of the office looked down to the schoolyard, students making their way up the sidewalk towards the entrance.

"The Ministry of defense appreciates your cooperation," he thanked the elf, the principal, sitting at the desk in front of him with his back turned. "You've probably already been informed that tomorrow I take over as their P.E. teacher. It is unorthodox, we realize, but necessary. I'll be there chiefly to observe, and to offer the students tactical advice. My teaching certificate is still valid, so that's something."

"I trust you," the principal said without turning to face him. "But the student's education and safety is my top priority."

Karasuma thanked him again as he and his colleague left.

"I figured we'd meet with more resistance," the other operative commented as they walked down the hallway. "The principal was very understanding."

"Please," Karasuma laughed. "He's being paid a pretty penny to let us in here. This all seems rather convenient if you ask me. A creature with god-like powers, untouchable, beyond the reach of the military, who wants to teach? Thankfully, we've kept it a secret. The principal is involved and the Class E students, but as far as we can tell, no other civilians have a clue."

"I'm going to die..." an unknown voice said. "This is the end of the world, man."

Karasuma immediately stopped talking to see two students walking down the hall behind them. He and his colleague stopped to let them pass, not that they seemed to notice.

"For you," the first student's friend said. "Quit screwing around and get those grades up, man. Have you seen the satellite campus, it's a nightmare! No cafeteria, bathrooms look like something out of a horror movie, the kids are psychos, and the teachers fear for their lives. Once you're there, you're basically done. Colleges won't touch your transcript with a ten-foot pole!"

"I know, I know, dude," the first student sighed. "Whatever keeps me out of Class E, I'll do it!"

"Time-tested strategy," Karasuma spoke up again once the students turned the corner up ahead. "Single out a group as undesirable, and the rest will follow in line to avoid being one of them. Social engineering at its finest; harsh, but effective. It makes our job a little easier than it might be otherwise."

Karasuma left the other operative at the main campus, heading to the gates that marked the mountain path up to the secondary campus. He made the steep climb, thinking as he went. _*It must be like the doom pit for the bottom-of-the-heap students in that class. But say what you will, Class 3-E is ideal for our purposes. Remote, secluded, full of ticking, teenage time-bombs.*_

_____

Moonshore held a handgun and focused on trying to find a direction to shoot in, so he didn't notice when Karasuma walking up. Kayano, though, jogged out of the annex carrying long poles with their rubber knives tied to the ends and stopped to greet him.

"Oh, Karasuma-san," Kayano jogged in place. "What are you doing here?"

"New job assignment," He explained to the short girl. "As of tomorrow, I'll be taking over as your P.E. teacher. I hope we get along."

"Really? That sounds cool!" Kayano giggled. "Then I get to call you 'Karasuma-sensei' from now on."

"So where exactly is your target now?" Karasuma looked around. He noticed another student run out of the building carrying rope.

"Apologizing," she said, simply. "Koro-sensei ruined our flower bed and he wants to make up for it, so we reduced his speed and he's letting us play 'pinata'. Isn't he totally the coolest teacher ever, or what?!"

Moonshore noticed when Kayano jogged up to him with Karasuma following her. He had almost given up at shooting by the time they approached. Looking up at the tall tree on the outskirts of the school's yard, he watched as their teacher swung wildly to avoid the other students' jabs. They had tied down his arms and hung him from a tree, but it wasn't doing very much in actually trying to kill him.

"A few more minuted of this and all is forgiven, right?" Koro-sensei called down. "You're a very lucky class, I'll have you know. Not many teachers would put themselves in this position!"

"What do you think, Moonshore?" Kayano asked.

"Yeah... He's just messing with us," his face clouded with the realization.

"This is not what the Ministry of Defense has in mind..." Karasuma watched from behind them.

"Wait, hang on a minute," Moonshore dug through his pockets, pulling out his notebook. "There has to be a corresponding weakness."

"Shoot and stab all you want, class!" Koro-sensei laughed, face striped with green. "Even with this handicap, I am too fast for you! Only in your dreams do you have any hope of getting the deed do--!"

The tree limb the rope was tied to had snapped, strained by their teacher's weight and the quick and constant movement he making. He fell to the ground, face first, circled by his angry students.

"Kill him!" the students yelled in unison, trying to tackle him and then giving chase as he ran.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Koro-sensei yelled to no avail. "This isn't part of the deal! Oh dung, oh dung, oh dung! Time out, the rope's tangled in my tentacles."

The students chased him even after he started to roll down the side of the mountain. They surrounded him again, and much like when he hung from the tree, he rolled away from their strikes as he lay helpless on the ground.

"Well, your notes are bound to come in handy at some point," Kayano laughed at their teacher's flailing.

"Right," Moonshore looked down at what he had written earlier before turning to a new page. "That's why I'm jotting everything down."

Koro-sensei's _Weakness #2 - Panics easily._

"Hey, get back down here!" Okajima, a perverse human boy, yelled.

Moonshore looked up to see what he was talking about as a large wind hit him. Koro-sensei had jumped straight up and landed on the schoolhouse roof.

"What's the matter, children?" their teacher shouted, laughing like a madman. "Can't jump this high? Oh, wait, of course not!"

"Ah, man," Kimura, a round-faced half-human, stomped his foot in frustration. "We were so close!"

Koro-sensei finally stopped laughing to bend over and pant, "Just for that, double the homework!"

"That's so unfair!" multiple students yelled.

Koro-sensei's _Weakness #3 - Sore loser._

"He's running away..." Mimura sighed as their teacher flew off at top speed.

"But this was our best attempt yet!" Kataoka encouraged.

"If we keep this up, I know we'll kill him sooner or later!" Isogai added.

All the students were quickly perked up and began to talk about the prize money for killing their teacher and what they'd do with it.

Karasuma stood away from them, frowning uncomfortably. _*Junior high students cheerfully discussing murder... If it weren't necessary, it would be creepy. Strangest class ever.*_

"So, what do you think?" Kayano turned to Moonshore, who was still writing in his book. "Do we have a decent chance?"

"Oh, yeah, no doubt," Moonshore beamed. "Least I hope so, or it's going to be a really awkward graduation ceremony."

_*It's a funny thing...*_ Karasuma overheard the two students. _*The system's given up on these kids, and look at them. They've got so much positive energy, so much purpose. Out of all the kids in this school, the ones in Class E are the most optimistic.*_

_____

At that same moment, all the way at the Ministry of Defense's headquarters, a meeting was taking place. The only people in the large, dark room were two government agents and a student.

"As you can see, our situation is a desperate one," the leading agent, a woman, finished her explanation. "Needless to say, this information is shared in the strictest confidence. Break the non-disclosure clause, and we will be forced to wipe your memory."

"Yikes," the student's voice was light and conveyed no worry despite what he'd said. He let his arm fall slack, finished reading the paper they'd given him, leaning back on the couch he sat on.

"Your fellow classmates have already been debriefed," the woman continued. "And are already working on their mission. They've done their best, but so far, to no effect. Once your suspension has ended, you'll report to Class E and assess the situation. From there, you are authorized to proceed as you see fit."

"Whatever," the student threw the paper over his shoulder and it floated down to rest on the couch next to him. He grabbed the rubber knife they'd shown him, holding it with both ends and bending it, "You expect me to take him down with this? Seriously?"

"That is correct," she confirmed. "That knife, while harmless to all, is designed specifically with your target in mind."

"Human... elf... troll... or not..." the student hummed. "Doesn't matter to me."

He punctuated his sentence by stabbing the knife through the discarded paper, meeting with no resistance as it continued between the gap of the cushions. His four-fingered hand gripped it tightly.

"Either way, I'm good," he lifted the knife, paper coming with it, and dropped it to the floor in front of him. He leaned forward, eyes reflecting the little light in the room even as his shaggy, red hair fell to cover his face. "You have no idea how long I've been itching to kill a teacher. Should be fun..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is being posted right after the last one's rewrite because I might as well try to stay on-schedule.  
> But yay! Karma's finally here! God, it'll start seeming more fanfic-like the farther we get into it.


	6. Class 4 - Time to Get Down to Work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics - narration  
> Bold - flashback  
> * * + Italics - thoughts  
> ** ** + Italics - sending  
> " " - speaking  
> Half-human - more human appearance  
> Half-elf - more elf appearance

"One! Two! Three!"

Karasuma watched over the students as they practiced handling their knives, counting to an eight-beat routine.

"Ah, the sounds of a choreographed exercise regiment echoing across the fields on a golden afternoon," Koro-sensei sighed beside him, twirling a dandelion in this hand. "So peaceful, so militant."

"Make those knives seen!" Karasuma shouted. "Treat every move like a legit kill strike! Again, from stance one. And keep your balance!"

"Six! Seven! Eight!"

"I thought I told you to take a break," Karasuma spoke to his fellow teacher, not turning his eyes away from the students. "Phys. Ed. is my department now."

"But I'm lonely," Koro-sensei whined.

"Find something else to do then, like, I don't know," Karasuma jabbed his thumb in direction of behind him. "There's a sandbox, have a field day."

"Why are you so mean, Karasuma-san?" the octopus cried, sitting in the sandbox and making a mound anyway. "The students loved my P.E. class!"

"Yeah, not so much," Sugaya sighed, resting his knife against his shoulder as they completed the exercise. "No offense, or anything, it's just when it comes to exercise you..."

"Set the bar kinda high," Sugino finished.

**"Alright, let's try a simple jumping side-to-side maneuver," Koro-sensei instructed, standing next to some field markings. "I'll demonstrate how it's done first."**

**Koro-sensei started moving side-jumping at least a quarter of his full speed, leaving a slight after-image. He crossed not only one line, but all of them across the field. "Once you've got the rhythm, throw some Cat's Cradle into the mix!"**

"Like we could keep up with that!" Rio laughed, her elven voice like a melody. "But it was pretty cool..."

"Yeah, I want to learn P.E. for normal bodies," Sugino shook his head.

"Finally some peace and quite," Karasuma grumbled, watching Koro-sensei despair in the sandbox over the comment. "Let's get on with the class."

_____

Moonshore stood in the back of the group, all of them waiting for Karasuma's next instructions.

"Can I ask an obvious question, sir?" Maehara held up his knife. "If there's an actual point to this training, should... uh... Should we be practicing right in front of our target?"

"Assassination is a skill like any other," Karasuma stood with hands on his hips. "Drill the basics and they'll serve you well."

_*Okay.*_ Moonshore hummed.

"Isogai, Maehara," Karasuma looked at them. "Step up. Try and hit me with that rubber knife."

"What?" Isogai was confused. "Like as a team? Are you sure?"

"The blades are harmless," their P.E. teacher reminded them. "They weren't designed to injure anyone but your target.

"Tell you what," Karasuma loosened his tie. "Manage to hit me and you can go home for the day."

"Uh... okay," Isogai and Maehara looked at each other, still unsure. "Well, here goes nothing."

Both boys bent their knees in preparation. Isogai lunged first, missing as Karasuma stepped to the side. He tripped and tried to regain his balance.

"That it?" Karasuma directed at Maehara. "Come on."

Maehara moved to strike him, closer than Isogai had gotten, but Karasuma grabbed his wrist. Karasuma pulled the hand Maehara held his knife past himself and pushed the rest of the boy's body away. Isogai tried to slash Karasuma as Maehara regained his footing. They stood on either side of their teacher, trying to get closer and tag him.

"See that, kids?" Karasuma easily blocked their attacks, grabbing their wrists and redirecting their aim and or moving to the side. "Even with the bare minimum know-how, I can practically dodge their attacks in my sleep. They've got no technique."

_*Wow...*_ Moonshore watched in awe, as did some of the other students.

Isogai and Maehara stopped attacking, moving back before they both ran at Karasuma. They both aimed at his face, directly in the eyes... but their teacher, practically with no effort, caught their hands inches from himself and flipped them.

"If you can't land a hit against a guy like me," Karasuma looked at them on the ground but addressed the whole class. "You haven't got a prayer against a target whose top speed is Mach 20. See, we've been sparring for half a minute and look."

Karasuma turned to the sandbox off the side of the field where their main teacher sat. Koro-sensei sat on a mat, sipping a drink.

"He's had time to change clothes, make tea, and build a model of Asaka Castle."

"Showoff.." someone muttered.

"That's why we drill," Karasuma helped the boys up. "When the whole class can hit me, you have a shot. Do as I tell you as often as I tell you to do it, you'll become assassins.

"This isn't recess, kids," he turned back to the rest of the students. "Knives, pistols, sniper rifles, assault weapons... The basics of assassination. You're going to learn them all in my class. Alright, that ought to do it for today."

"Thank you, sir," the class bowed before dispersing to talk.

Moonshore stood off to the side, more listening than talking. He felt something tingling in his mind, like someone familiar was sending to him without words, but ignored it.

"This is so intense," Yada grinned. "He's terrifying, but so cool at the same time."

"I know!" Yurufuwa giggled. "He wants you to hurt him, but he'll pat you on the head if you do it right. I think I'm going to enjoy P.E. from now on."

"He's a good coach," Rinka, a half-elf girl of few words, added.

Moonshore looked to see Koro-sensei's face darkened, dripping with sweat, and biting at his handkerchief.

"I know what this is," Koro-sensei turned to Karasuma. "You're trying to take my place as their favorite teacher!"

"Really?" the government agent turned teacher didn't even look back at the accusation. "I'm here by assignment. Like it or not, as per your contract, and I quote: 'All new hires regarding Class E are solely the prerogative of Kunugugigaoka Academy'."

Suddenly, Karasuma turned and threw a knife at Koro-sensei, who caught it.

"And either way, this isn't a popularity contest. My job is to oversee these assassins until they assassinate you, pal."

"Could you not call me that, please?" Koro-sensei put his regular hat back on, after switching it for his costume earlier. "I prefer the name my students gave me. So that's Koro-sensei to you."

Moonshore turned from his teachers, planning to head back as the bell rung. The tingling felt stronger now. Sugino walked with him, distracting him by talking about their upcoming lessons. Moonshore laughed before finally looking in front of him, seeing...

"Firehair..." Moonshore looked in shock as the wind blew as if to announce the new student's arrival. "You're back!"

Up the small hill stood a rather tall elf, smiling down at him. His namesake was obvious, as his bright red, messy hair swaying in the wind.

"Hiya," Firehair's smile grew, looking giddy. "Long time no see, Moonshore."

Moonshore didn't move, still surprised by his agemate's sudden arrival.

"Whoa!" Firehair came down the hill, looking and walking past them. "So that's Koro-sensei? He looks like an octopus! Freaky."

Everyone turned to watch the new student walk straight up to their target, acting blissfully.

"Ah, Firehair of the Wolfriders, correct?" Koro-sensei greeted with almost as much mirth. "I understand your suspension ends today, welcome back. That said, tardiness is a no-no."

"It's kinda tricky getting back into the swing of things," Firehair laughed as their teacher's face turned purple. "Sorry I'm late. It's nice to meet you, Koro-sensei!"

"Nice to meet you, too," Koro-sensei reached to take his new student's outstretched hand. "I look forward to a productive year togeth--"

"POP"

Koro-sensei's hand burst when they shook, reduced to a yellow sludge. Before he could even react, Firehair took back his own hand, one of the Anti-Sensei knives falling out of the sleeve of his jacket. The student slashed at him, wearing a creepy expression of what could only be described as pure joy. Koro-sensei dodged, moving several yards away from his assailant.

"Wow," Firehair laughed again, but his tone mocking. "You are fast, ain'tcha? And they weren't lying when they said this would hurt you. Even little tiny slivers like this. I just cut one up and stuck 'em on!

"I can't believe... You fell for the oldest trick in the book!" He turned his palm outward, strips of green rubber running along his fingers and palm where they wouldn't crease. He began walking towards Koro-sensei again. "And look at you all the way over there. What are you, scared of me?"

_*He hurt him... He actually hurt him!!*_ Moonshore's mind raced. _*That makes him the first.*_

"Koro-sensei..." Firehair said in a sing-songy voice without stopping his advance. "That's a play on 'koro sensai' isn't it? 'Can't kill'?

"Oh, come on," he snickered. Stopping less than a foot away from the teacher, Firehair tilting his body to look up at him from the side. Dripping with arrogance, "No way you can be this big of a pushover."

Koro-sensei's face turned a dark red, veins unrealistically popping out of several places. Even from afar Moonshore could hear what sounded like the grinding of teeth, or at least a poorly restrained noise of irritation by their teacher.

"Moonshore..." Kayano came up to him. "I haven't been in Class E that long, so... What kind of person is this 'Firehair'?"

"Uh... We were in the same class our first and second year," Moonshore explained, thinking back. "But he kept getting suspended for fighting. So violent they finally expelled him and shipped him here. Class E is where they send you when they don't know what else to do with you... But knowing Firehair, he'll be at the head of the class in no time."

"Huh?" Kayano questioned after he barely finished. "What do you mean?"

"When it comes to weaponry, battle tactics, and sneak attacks..." Moonshore faced forward again, watching as Firehair walked back, twirling his knife this way and that before pocketing it. "He's probably the best out of all of us. Trust me, if anyone can kill our teacher, it's Firehair."

_*Don't run too far, Koro-sensei.*_ Firehair's head was tilted down, hair falling to hide his face. He may have been walking away, but all his senses were focused on the being behind him, stalking like the predator he was. _*I'll show you what it's like to be assassinated. You won't want to miss it!*_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't start writing this until yesterday because I was too distracted with re-reading vol. 2 & 3 when they came earlier this week, Overwatch Summer Games, and getting back into Future Tone. (I already got two of the Lucioball achievement sprays and beat some songs on Extreme and EXEX!)  
> I wanted to keep writing because the next chapter is in the same episode as Karma's proper introduction, but that leaves more fun for later! And more time to think how hot Firehair looks with a chief's lock. *drools*


	7. Class 5 - Making Time for Firehair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics - narration  
> Bold - flashback  
> * * + Italics - thoughts  
> ** ** + Italics - sending  
> " " - speaking  
> Half-human - more human appearance  
> Half-elf - more elf appearance

"Ploo-up... Ploo-up... Ploo-up..."

"What's Koro-sensei doing?" Mimura whispered.

"I don't know," Yada whispered back from beside him. "Maybe he's punching the wall?"

"Firehair's smack talk seems to have really touched a nerve," Isogai observed.

"If that's as hard as he can hit that's pretty sad," Maehara sighed.

_Koro-sensei's Weakness #4 - Weak Punches._

Moonshore wrote down after pulling out his notebook, easily hearing his classmates because it was silent other than their talking and their teacher's 'punching'. He quickly put it away again, trying to ignore the repetitive noise in favor of his test. Koro-sensei was at the front of the classroom, facing away from them. He was slouching, his hand curled up in an attempt of a fist as he hit against the wall. It didn't do much good, his soft tentacles only swishing against it and making a suction noise.

"The wall surrenders, Koro-sensei!" Sene yelled, catching everyone's attention. "What about our test?!"

"Ah, sorry!" Koro-sensei was broken from whatever trance he was in as he stammered.

"You sure you know what you're getting yourself into, Firehair?" Terasaka didn't even try to whisper. "You don't want to get that monster mad, you know."

"Terasaka knows all about making him mad," Muramatsu snickered. "If I was you, I'd stay at home with my head under the furs."

"Of course I made him mad," Firehair looked at them through the side of his eye, his voice teasing. "I almost killed him... Hey, Terasaka... Didja wet your pants after you pissed him off?"

"Wha...? I did not!" Terasaka slammed his fist onto the desk to punctuate. "That attitude's gonna get your ass ki--!"

"Quiet, please!" Koro-sensei shouted at them, hearing them all the way at the front. "No noise during a quiz. Continue to talk and will assume you're cheating!"

_**Tell that to your tentacles.**_ Highsight risked a send, open to all but their teacher in case he could receive it.

Moonshore peaked over his shoulder, looking at the elf boy near the back. Even if Highsight's eyes were hidden, the rests' weren't. He let out a sigh, hoping that their teacher hadn't seen the faint glint in all the elven-blooded eyes upon receiving the message. If he had, then they'd all be scolded for possible cheating, but it seemed like he was distracted enough.

"Sorry, Koro-sensei, my bad," Firehair apologized, but in the tone of a taunting child. "No worries though, I've already finished. I'm just going to eat this gelato if that's okay."

Firehair proceeded to pull out the frozen treat, soft pink and swirled on its cone. Moonshore looked in shock before turning back to his own test, wondering where he was hiding it and how it wasn't messed up. Other students pointedly looked forward, too, trying not to be involved.

"Not so fast! No eating in cla--," Koro-sensei gasped, spying the treat. "Hey! That's the gelato I brought back from Camtown yesterday!"

"Oops, my bad," Firehair acted surprised. "I found it in the freezer in the faculty room."

"'My bad'?!" Koro-sensei all but screeched. "I had to fly through the stratosphere to keep it from melting on my way back! And the stratosphere is cold!"

"Yeah?" Firehair took a lick of the gelato. "So, what are you gonna do about it? Squishy-punch me?"

"Of course not," their teacher huffed, face red. "I'll simply have it back and finish whats left, thank you ver--!"

Moonshore was barely surprised when he heard the pop of Koro-sensei's tentacles, but looked back to see anyway. Their teacher had stopped at the row before Firehair's, looking down. Moonshore could see through the legs of the desks and chairs that the floor was covered with Anti-Sensei BB's... And that one of Koro-sensei's feet, for lack of a better term, were reduced to sludge.

"Anti-Me BB's?!" Koro-sensei whined in disbelief.

"You fell for it again," Firehair laughed, taking out a pistol and shooting.

Koro-sensei dodged with minimal effort but looked down in worry at his foot. He lifted it to inspect the damage when the shots stopped, letting out a noise of despair.

"I'm gonna keep doing this, you know," Firehair stood up, walking towards their teacher with his gun still aimed. "You think I care if I disrupt your class? If you don't like it...

"Kill me, kill whoever..." Firehair stopped, lowering the gun but shoving the gelato into Koro-sensei's robe and smearing it. "But once you do, you won't be a teacher anymore... You'll be a monster.

The look on Firehair's face was intimidating, scarily so, with his eyes narrowed and teeth bared. It was a look that told of a crazed animal, an obsessed predator with his prey in sight.

"I've been wanting to kill a teacher," Firehair's demeanor changed after he said that, back to his version of normal. He walked past their teacher, tossing a paper his way, "Here's my test. I know I aced it. See you, Koro-sensei... Let's play again tomorrow!"

With a smile and a typically cute tilt of his head, he left. Leaving in the middle of class, not caring at everyone staring.

_*Firehair's not afraid to go there. He knows exactly what buttons to push... Case in point, he drew a line in the sand that Koro-sensei couldn't cross without changing the way we all saw him. It took nerve, but it also took honing in on his target's weakness.*_ Moonshore sighed, thinking about his agemate. _*He's clever, he's manipulative, he's ice cold. He sees what makes you tick and exploits it... The sad thing is, he does that with everybody, pushes them right to the edge. He doesn't trust anyone.*_

_____

After school that day, no-one noticed their teacher flying off with a thoughtful look. _*Thanks to him, I have to go get a new gelato. He's smart and he's right. I can't kill or harm him if I want to keep working as a teacher. So what should I do with him...?*_

_____

"Bye, Moonshore," Sugino waved goodbye, choosing to walk home.

"Bye, see you tomorrow!" Moonshore waved back, waiting for his train to arrive.

He was at the main campus's private train station, right down the pathway after trekking down the mountain. It was only used to transport students, teachers, and visiting guardians between the school and the public stations. Though it only had a few actually Kunugigaoki owned trains, they all went in separate directions before coming back for the next group of students.

"Hey, it's Moonshore"

Moonshore resisted the urge to turn around to see the source of the noise but didn't. That voice was still familiar with its sneering tone.

"Look at that guy, all cozy with the Class E dumbasses," Tanaka, a pudgy human boy from Class D, snickered.

"Ew, gross," Takada, a half-human boy from the same class, teased. "Gotta hand it to him, he's adapted to the crowd he's going to spend the rest of his life with."

"Guess what! Now that his suspension's over, they shoved that Firehair nut over to Class E!"

"Ooh, dude no kidding? I'd rather be dead than stuck in a class with that freak!"

Moonshore jumped at the sound of glass breaking. He quickly turned around to see Firehair standing next to the Class D students, holding the neck of a broken bottle.

"Seriously?" Firehair giggled excitedly. He turned to the boys and pointed the bottle's now sharp end at them. "Because I can help you out with that! It'd be messy, but real quick."

The Class D students backed away from him, fear evident in their posture. They ran away as Firehair took a step closer, "I'd rather live, thanks!"

Firehair laughed as he tossed the bottle to the side, smashing against the ground. He barely watched the retreating figures before turning to his own classmate, "Like I'd actually do anything, right?

"I don't have time to get suspended again," he continued as he walked up. "Now that I have a new toy to play with."

"Uh, hey," Moonshore greeted.

"Yeah, hey Moonshore," Firehair smiled at him, directing that they walk out to the boarding platform. "Is it cool if I pick your brain for a sec? Word is you've been keeping notes on the octopus."

"Um, well, yeah," Moonshore mumbled as they scanned their phones on the turnstiles, reading their electronic ID's to allow access. "I guess a little bit."

_**Would he get mad if I called him an octopus?**_ Firehair quickly switched over to sending.

Moonshore wasn't too startled by the change in communication, Firehair does it a lot with one-on-one interactions. Couple that with they were still surrounded by main campus students while talking about a government-kept secret? It's not too unreasonable to want privacy.

_**An octopus...?**_ Moonshore delayed himself, thinking how Firehair could also want to send to get the most reliable intel. With the inability to lie while sending, there was little room for misunderstanding unless you give or take it in the wrong context. _**Probably not. He might even take it as a compliment. He signs his tests with an octopus, and he uses it as his avatar when he plays video games..._

_**And the other day, he dug a hole in the schoolyard and...**_ Moonshore chuckled a little as he shared the memory of Koro-sensei burying himself and yelling he was being cooked in a big pot. _**The octopus is becoming his trademark.**_

_**That's good.**_ Firehair nodded, giggling a little. _**I just got this crazy idea... Oh, this is going to be epic.**_

_**Firehair, I know that tone.**_ Moonshore couldn't hide the slight unease in his mind, just like his friend couldn't hide his excitement. _**You're cooking up something really dark. What are you up to?**_

_**I'm... really happy. Really happy.**_ Firehair turned back to look him, straight in the eyes. _**I was afraid he was going to be just some weird monster... but he actually is a teacher. An honest to goodness teacher.**_

Moonshore saw the train approaching in his peripheral vision, heard the horn sound and the chug of its engine, but he remained focused on the elf in front of him. Firehair had that look, the one he'd seen in dark alleys and empty hallways. The one where his eyes were ablaze with the hunger to challenge... and diminish.

_**I can't believe I get to kill a teacher with my own hand!**_ Firehair laughed aloud, the train whizzing past behind him. The wind from it tossed his hair to the side, preventing it from obscuring his mad smile. _**It's payback time! After what happened with last one...**_

Moonshore's eyes grew wide, almost gasping at the twinge of pain he felt in the send. He didn't ask to elaborate, knowing that a hint was all he would get. Firehair wasn't much for sharing details about something that hurt him, but that wouldn't stop his agemate from worrying about what he'd do tomorrow because of it.

The train slowed to a stop, its doors opening wide. Firehair went back to 'normal' again, turning around and walking across the yellow line.

_**This is your train, right?**_ He stopped halfway through the door, leaning against it. _**Better get on before it leaves you.**_

Moonshore gathered himself, following as Firehair turned to find a seat. They sat next to each other, waiting for the train to depart. The down ride was silent aside from the other student's talking as they didn't even send.

_____

Homeroom was silent, no-one dared say a word. Usually in the time before class officially started everyone would be chatting about this or that, but today was different.

Moonshore could hear Koro-sensei just outside the classroom, despairing over his lack of gelato funds. Moments later their teacher walked in, ducking under the door frame and greeting them a good morning. No-one replied, their heads bowed, looking anywhere but forward.

"Why the long faces?" Koro-sensei questioned, turning to take his place at the front. "Has something happ..."

Their teacher trailed off, seeing that was on his podium. A fresh, slimy octopus sat there with a real knife shoved through its head between the eyes. Its eyes stared directionlessly, lifeless despite its coloring being bright and fleshy.

"I am so sorry," Firehair called from the back, obviously not sincere in his apology. He turned up his nose and stuck his tongue out a bit, "I thought it was you... and I killed it. Innocent mistake. I'll throw it away for you, if you hand it to me."

Koro-sensei sighed, picking up the poor octopus and heading to Firehair's desk. There weren't any BB's on the floor this time, at least.

_*Come on, Koro-sensei.*_ Firehair urged and taunted in his mind. He bounced the Anti-Sensei knife in his hand held behind his back impatiently. _*I don't plan on killing you physically just yet... I'll start off by killing your spirit first!*_

Koro-sensei stopped halfway down the aisle, lifting some tentacles that were pointed and spinning. They made a whirling noise like a drill before he zipped out of the classroom.

"Observe if you will, Firehair," Koro-sensei said on his return, not only holding the octopus anymore. "The versatility of these tentacles and firepower of this missile I took from the navy!"

Everyone, even Firehair, stared blankly as Koro-sensei ignited the missile and held a pan over it.

"If you think I'm going to let the new kid get away with murder, think again," he continued, cooking at top speed. He punctuated by shoving a piece of his dish into Firehair's mouth, who spit it out immediately at its temperature.

"You look pale," their teacher commented, holding up the rest of the dish. He punctured one with his drill tentacle, offering to Firehair. "You skipped breakfast, didn't you? Please, help yourself to some of this delicious takoyaki cooked at Mach 20. I insist, it's the most important meal of the day! Breakfast, that is."

Firehair wiped his mouth, glaring at Koro-sensei. He fanned at his lips trying to cool them down.

"You see, I'm a giver," Koro-sensei almost took on an arrogant attitude himself. "I take care of things. Hungry students, would be assassins, troubled cubs...

"It is my job to polish you," he smirked, actually opening his mouth to reveal more takoyaki within. This affecting is speaking as little as always having his mouth shut did. "An assassin's blade that has become rusty and dull. Come at me with everything you've got all day long. And I'll keep polishing you. By the end of class today, if your body and spirit will be sparkly clean."

Firehair scoffed and sneered in response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting this at like 1am on Friday, so it's safe to say I'll just post the chapters when they're read whether it's the weekend or not. Maybe I can finish the next one tomorrow and there'll be a double update! I was just so excited for this chapter because I love Karma, especially the manga version of him. He just seems so much more... untamed.
> 
> God, I almost got a scare this week when my mom told me my favorite ramen place had been turned into a gym. I was like, "Where am I going to get good salmon onigiri now?!" She only then elaborated that she meant a pokemon gym (she 'doesn't English good'). It's actually the place I tried takoyaki myself, too!  
> Oh, and I saw that Slime Rancher was released as a full game. I can't play it myself because my computer's slow as shit and we're broke, but it's so cute. And I literally want to write something for everything I find cute, but I don't have the tiiiiiiime. My college classes start soon and I'm so behind on my schoolwork.
> 
> Ps. I really wanted Tanaka to call him 'Moons-whore' but I thought it was a little much. Also, the part where Moonshore and Firehair get on the train together I originally thought of them catching up, but it also seemed out of place. I'll just do something later.


	8. Class 6 - It's Time to Make a Choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics - narration  
> Bold - flashback  
> * * + Italics - thoughts  
> ** ** + Italics - sending  
> " " - speaking  
> Half-human - more human appearance  
> Half-elf - more elf appearance

_1st Period - Math_

"As you can see, whatever we do this number remains," Koro-sensei explained in a monotone voice, slumped in front of the chalkboard. "Now, I know the concept of indivisibility is a beast, but if its fangs frighten you I have a sure-fire way to tame it. See if you can get the gist as I write it out on the board."

The students watched with as much interest as their teacher taught.

Firehair leaned back in his seat, body language relaxed but face unreadable. He narrowed his eyes as he slowly pulled the pistol from in his jacket. He aimed and--

"Firehair."

He stopped, his teacher's tentacle wrapped around his hand and pulling his finger from the trigger. He remained still as the gun was taken from him.

"It takes an Anti-Me BB far too long to reach its mark. I mean, really... I had enough time to do your nails too. You like them?"

Firehair's eye twitched as noticed his nails, brightly colored with little designs, and grimaced.

_4th Period - Home Economics_

The students had moved to the science lab, dawning aprons and chef bandanas. They gathered around the tables, each with their own hot plate and saucepan. They were making their own soup, chopping up ingredients and stirring as it simmered.

Koro-sensei walked between them, surveying their work. He stopped at the far table where Fuwa stood pondering at her soup.

"How did you do, Fuwa?"

"I'm not totally sure," the human girl looked up at her teacher, lowering her ladle. "It's got a bizarre tangy flavor to it for some reason."

"Let's give it a taste," Koro-sensei didn't even hesitate in taking a spoon to taste-test it. As he pulled the spoon back from his mouth, he saw another student coming up.

"Probably easier if you just start over from scratch," Firehair smiled. "Why not get rid of this first batch?"

He stepped between Fuwa and the pan before bringing his fist down on its handle, sending the soup slashing at their teacher. Firehair then pulled a knife, planning to strike while Koro-sensei was distracted, but--

"Always wear an apron in the kitchen, Firehair."

He froze, his knife still raised. His teacher didn't have a single drop on him. Firehair looked down and staggered back a step. He now wore a pink, frilly apron with a large heart on it and a matching chef bandana where he hadn't worn any before.

"Oh, and don't worry, the soup is fine," Koro-sensei turned to Fuwa and held out the saucepan filled with the soup again. "I siphoned out of thin air and put it back in the pot. I also added a dash of sugar."

Koro-sensei lowered the pan so Fuwa could ladle a sip.

"That's exactly what it needed!" she gasped.

Firehair tugged the bandana off his head, growling in frustration. He could hear Terasaka laugh from the next table over, making teasing comments with his friends. He continued to glare at their teacher, ignoring everything, even his agemate's worried look.

_____

 _*It's no use.*_ Moonshore thought, watching as Firehair stormed out of the classroom. He sighed, turning back to continue helping Kayano with her own soup.

_5th Period - Literature_

_*Koro-sensei had weaknesses, we all do.*_ Moonshore stared down at his book, following along as their teacher read aloud. _*He screws up every now and then... and his speed drops to human levels whenever he's flustered, sure, but... Firehair's been so relentless with his surprise attacks--*_

"Even as those thoughts passed through my mind," Koro-sensei's voice changed in tone.

Moonshore turned to see him stopped by Firehair's desk. Koro-sensei had put a finger to his agemate's forehead, making him lean back in a subdued manner. Firehair had a knife falling halfway out his sleeve, looking like he'd been planning to stab their teacher as he passed.

"The red frog failed and returned..."

Moonshore watched as Koro-sensei began brushing Firehair's shaggy hair away from his face. Koro-sensei passed the comb through his student's bangs, spraying hairspray to make the thick, red locks lay in place flatly.

"I began to grow bored."

 _*He has Koro-sensei on high alert.*_ Moonshore turning back forward, choosing to ignore them as Koro-sensei continued grooming his agemate. _*And that means no dice.*_

_____

After the last bell tolled, Moonshore packed his bag and planned to go find where Firehair had gone off to. He found him in the woods behind the building, the part that was almost never visited. The sky had clouded over as he neared the drop-off.

Firehair sat on a tree that had grown out of the cliff's edge, sideways and reaching out over the drop. He let a foot dangle, biting at his nail and staring without focus.

"Firehair..." Moonshore tried to not let concern overtake his voice. "There's no rush. We'll kill him together... eventually.

"You can have the sneakiest, most foolproof plan in the world ready to go," he walked closer, not even sure if Firehair was listening. "But if Koro-sensei's got his eye on you, forget it. He's not like other teachers."

"Other teachers, huh?" Firehair lifted his head, voice low. _*No...*_

**"I'm with you one hundred percent, Firehair," Ono-sensei, the human teacher of Class D, patted him on the shoulder as they walked down the hall. "Your attitude... needs work. It has the potential to get you into a lot of trouble, but as long as you do what's right I'll back you up!"**

**Firehair turned to his teacher, a small smile on his lips.**

_*You don't understand.*_ Firehair's inner voice took an almost lighter tone, like one of a child. _*I wanna do it on my own. I don't want him dropping dead anywhere else.*_

Moonshore almost shook at the sending. It had so much bottled emotion in it, concentrated directly at him, only him. It wasn't an open send, it wasn't even a specified send...

"Oh, Firehair!"

Both boys snapped out of the lock send, turning to see their teacher walking out of the treeline. They stopped, completely silent with eyes now focused on their teacher.

"I feel like I've taken exceptionally good care of you today," Koro-sensei continued after looking between his two students. His face became striped with green, "Keep trying to kill me if that tickles your fancy. I certainly don't get tired of spiffing you up."

Firehair laughed, acting like their teacher hadn't just interrupted them, smirking at their teacher before standing up.

"Can I ask you something," he turned around completely, back now facing the open air. "You're a teacher, right, Koro-sensei?"

Moonshore looked at Firehair out of the corner of his eye, still partially facing their teacher. He had a feeling something, whether good or bad, was about to happen as Koro-sensei affirmed his agemate's query.

"And teachers protect their students with their lives, yeah?" Firehair droned.

"Of course. That's what teachers do."

"That's good to hear," Firehair pulled his pistol from his jacket, just like he had earlier, and aimed at his teacher. "Then I can kill you... I knew there had to be a way..."

Moonshore's eyes widened as Firehair stepped off the tree so casually. He barely had enough time to turn and reach out as his agemate disappeared over the edge of the cliff.

_____

 _*What's it going to be, teach?*_ Firehair smiled madly as he fell, feeling the air rush around him. _*You gonna swoop down to save me and get blasted in the process...? Or are you gonna be the kind of teacher that lets one of your students die?_

 _*Freaky...*_ he laughed in his mind. _*Your life really does flash before your eyes...*_

**"I think he's learned his lesson," Firehair released his hold on the hair of some student he didn't know. He watched him slumped to the floor before turning to another guy, sitting on the floor nursing his bruises. "You okay?"**

**...**

**"Class E?" Firehair was surprised by the answer. "They picked on you because of something stupid like that?"**

**...**

**"Huh?" Firehair was confused as he stood in his teacher's office but smiled nonetheless. "Of course I was** in **the right. What could possibly be wrong with protecting a student from a bully?"**

**"No," Ono-sensei said sternly. "Dammit, Firehair. Any way you slice it, you're clearly in the wrong!"**

_***What?*** _

**"Are you out of your mind or just stupid?" his teacher yelled at him, then gestured to the other student next to him. The bully was bruised and bandaged, leaning on a crutch and glaring. "What possessed you to think** **attacking your class's star pupil like a mad dog was something I'd let slide?"**

_***Huh? Wait a minute...*** _

**"You beat up a student with a future, a bright future, just because he picked on a student in Class E!" He emphasized the last part, repeating, "Class E."**

_***You said you'd always be on my side...*** _

**"And who's going to be held responsible if this screws up his high school placement exams? Me!"**

_***You told me you had my back...*** _

**Firehair's vision started shaking as he listened to Ono-sensei yell at him. He watched as the teacher's skin began to crack. It spread across the side of his face before finally, a piece flaked off, falling to the ground. More and more skin fell off, revealing what was truly underneath.**

_***He's dying.*** _

**"I supported you because you got good grades," Ono-sensei continued even with half his face gone. "But if you're going to screw me over, damage my reputation..."**

_**It's like he's dying inside.** _

**"Well, surprise!" the last piece of skin fell, leaving him only a graying skeleton. "I got you a transfer! Congratulations, Firehair. From this day on, you get to be a member of your beloved Class E."**

**Then everything went dark.**

**...**

**Firehair walked out of the destroyed office, a small smile on his lips.**

_*That was when I figured out a person could be dead and alive at the same time. Once I saw what he was inside... that teacher was dead to me._

_*Koro-sensei!*_ Firehair laughed aloud, not caring as he was drowned out by the rushing wind. _*One way or the other! Which 'death' are you gonna choose?!*_

His smile faltered as flashs of yellow streaked past him. Firehair's falling slowed as something caught him before bouncing to a stop in recoil.

"What?" Firehair laid limp in shock.

"Well done. A splendidly premeditated assassination attempt. Full marks."

Firehair tried turning his head, looking through the corner of his eye to see his teacher hanging below him.

"Neat, huh?" Koro-sensei chuckled. "I knew your body couldn't take being plucked out of freefall at the speed of sound and had I moved any slower you would've shot me."

Firehair struggled to lift himself to shoot, but every part of him touching his teacher's tentacle web was stubbornly held down.

"What a tangled and sticky web we weave, ay?" Koro-sensei poked his head through one of the openings in his webbing.

"What the poke?!" Firehair growled as his teacher moved around him. "Is there anything these tentacles aren't capable of?!"

"Can't shoot me now, can you?" Koro-sensei cackled. "Oh, and by the way...

"Abandoning you is not an option," Koro-sensei moved where his student could see him again. "Students do not die on my watch, ever. Take that to heart for the next time you jump; I'll catch you."

Firehair's eyes widened at Koro-sensei's words.

 _*I've got nothing.*_ he settled back, closing his eyes as a wide smile spread across his face. _*Un-poking-believable, he won't die and I can't kill him. At least... not as a teacher.*_

_____

"Firehair," Moonshore looked over the edge of the cliff, then turned to his agemate now safely sitting next to him. "I can't believe you did that! How were you so calm the whole time?"

"Well," Firehair sighed. "That was the best plan I had yet... Okay, maybe not the best, but nothing else I can come up with even touches it."

"Out of ideas already?" Koro-sensei whined. "But I have an entire beauty regiment lined up just for you! 'Come on, no way you can be this big of a pushover'!"

 _**I still feel like killing something.**_ Firehair sent to Moonshore before getting up.

 _*Except... it's different this time, somehow.*_ he thought as he turned toward their teacher. He moved his thumb across his neck in a quick motion, the same way humans do.

"No worries, teach," Firehair confirmed the promise the gesture symbolized. "I'll kill you tomorrow or so..."

"That's the spirit," Koro-sensei's face turned reddish-orange. "Never give up. Seems my tender loving care had paid off."

"Let's go home, Moonshore," Firehair called out as he started walking back towards the school house, throwing a pouch up and down. "We can grab a bite to eat on the way."

"Hey!" Koro-sensei gasped. "That's my wallet!"

"Yeah?" Firehair turned back, smirking. "Well, you shouldn't leave it lying around the faculty room unattended."

"Give it back!"

"Sure," Firehair tossed it to him. "Here you go."

"Gimme, gimme, gimme," Koro-sensei whispered as he held the pouch close. He blanched when he opened it, "Hey, uh, this is empty."

"And there wasn't much there, to begin with," Firehair smiled innocently. "It was just nickels and dimes. I threw them in a donation box."

"What?! You, you... Robin Hood!"

 _*Every time one of us goes in for the kill, we miss the mark, but somehow end up better off.*_ Moonshore watched them with a smile. _*That's the way it goes in our assassination classroom. I can't wait to see how we try to kill our teacher tomorrow.*_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TTvTT I love him so much.  
> I didn't get around to finishing this until today because I forgot last Friday was my dad's birthday, and then we took a 10-hour trip on Wednesday, and then we had to fix my college schedule because they accidentally assigned me to the wrong campus, and then we had my brother's birthday dinner last night (his b-day's today)... So, yeah.  
> I also didn't start writing it until Thursday because I was inspired by Jacksepticeye's Player Unknown's Battlegrounds videos and started writing an original story similar to the game mechanics because, as far as I know, there isn't any cannon lore associated with it.


	9. Class 7 - Time for a Refreshing Drink

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics - narration  
> Bold - flashback  
> * * + Italics - thoughts  
> ** ** + Italics - sending  
> " " - speaking  
> Half-human - more human appearance  
> Half-elf - more elf appearance

"Thank you for the help, children. I really appreciate it."

  
"You may have more hands than the rest of us," Kataoka picked up a case of test tube racks and beaker stands. "But it'd still be a stretch for you to carry all this lab equipment by yourself."

  
"Exactly," Koro-sensei beamed, picking up bowls and flasks himself. "Now it's a one trip job. No wonder you were both elected class officers. So reliable."

  
"Thanks," Isogai stood holding his own crate. "But you really could have done this without us, a couple of quick trips back and forth."

  
"I suppose I could have, yes, but the more the merrier, ay?"

  
"I have a question, sir."

  
"Yes?" Koro-sensei turned to him.

  
"Are you starting to feel at home? Like, with all of us?"

  
"Wow," Kataoka smiled. "I can't believe you're really asking him that."

  
"Put in those terms, I'd say I feel incredibly at home," Koro-sensei turned and exited the storage room. "As your teacher."

  
"That's strange."

  
"Really?" Koro-sensei looked over his shoulder at the half-human girl as they continued walking down the hallway.

"Well, yeah," Isogai shrugged, shifting the crate in his arms. "A creature like you taking any interest whatsoever in a group of junior high kids isn't exactly something you see every day."

"I mean, you actually teach us, so it's borderline cool," Kataoka elaborated. "Just takes getting used to."

Koro-sensei opened the door to the science lab where Okajima peaked out from behind and jabbed at him. He moved away, throwing the supplies he had into the air. He avoided Maehara, who also moved from hiding to attack, slipping past them into the room. He reached behind him to grab the falling lab equipment he'd left.

"Then there's the whole assassination thing," Isogai continued as the crates were taken from Kataoka and him by their teacher.

"A vital part of my role, I'd argue," Koro-sensei called out as he avoided the boys attacking him, Mimura joining in, in favor of setting each lab table. "Target, teacher, we have not to separate the two."

The three boys stopped, slumping against each other by the door, as Koro-sensei finished.

"Did he seriously just dodge three knives while prepping lab?" Maehara panted.

"Hey, Maehara, you okay?" Isogai went over to check on him, earning a shrug from his friend.

"They should know by now that was too obvious," Firehair commented, turning to their laughing teacher. "Am I right, teach?"

"All right, boys and girls," Koro-sensei moved to the blackboard at the front. "Let's begin."

He walked past Okuda, not showing any sign of noticing her tense posture and furrowed brow.

_____

Koro-sensei poured a clear chemical mixture into the large beaker. The gummy worms at the bottom floated a little as their color bleed into the liquid. He removed the dulled gummy worms with teasers and held up the beaker for the class to see, "Tada! And that's how we extract the coloring from processed food."

"It's bright red," sounds of awe came from the students.

With a blast of wind, Koro-sensei went and picked up the food the students had used to do the experiment themselves, even the ones they'd opened to snack on.

"I'll, ah," their teacher cradled the snacks in his arms like a life force, visibly sweating. "I'll just take the leftover samples, thank you. Excuse me!"

"Wait!" Isogai yelled angrily as Koro-sensei dashed off to stash the food somewhere. "We bought those for ourselves!"

Other students shouted their outrage at their teacher.

"Is it me, or did he just use this lab to support his junk food habit between paychecks?" Maehara asked, glaring suspiciously at Koro-sensei.

"My question is why a super organism has to live on a teacher's salary if he'd planning to destroy the world," Kataoka sighed.

Everyone stopped their complaints as Okuda, a quiet human girl, walked straight up to their teacher. She held three corked test tubes behind her back, hidden from their teacher's view, but not theirs.

"I, uh, well," Okuda stumbled over her words, fidgeting nervously.

"Go on, speak up, Okuda," their teacher encouraged. "What can I do for you?"

"Um!" she raised her head, looking their teacher in the eyes as she revealed her vials to him. "Poison, sir! Would you drink it, please?!"

Everyone, even her target, gapped at the request.

"Well, she doesn't beat around the bush."

"Okuda..." Koro-sensei looked at her. "That was... honest."

"I'm sorry, is this weird?" Okuda fidgeted more, still holding the test tubes out in front of her face. "See, the thing it, sir... I'm not very good at being sneaky. I mean, everyone else is so good at this stuff, but me? What I'm good at is chemistry, and I put my heart and soul into this!"

"All righty then..." Sugino grimaced. "Um, Okuda? Points for throwing in, but no-one's that stupid."

"Your heart and soul?" Koro-sensei took one of the tubes, popping the cork out. "Don't mind if I do then!"

He downed it in one gulp, to his student's shock. Koro-sensei slouched, coughing with a gurgling sound.

"This... this is too..." he started twitching.

"Is it really going to work?" Isogai gasped. "This might be it!"

Koro-sensei stood straight up again as his face turned a light blue and three spikes grew out of the back of his head.

"Or he could just grow horns..."

"Quite a kick," their teacher turned back to Okuda. "Sodium hydroxide. Harmful to all races, but not to me. You've got two more. I'll give them a try too."

"Um, yes!" Okuda handed him the next chemical.

"Alright, down the hatch!" he drank without hesitation again.

There was a lot more gurgling this time as he doubled over like he would spue. When it was over, he was sweating profusely and his head had turned a minty green. There were also wings sprouting from the sides of their teacher's head and antennae now, along with the spikes.

"He grew wings this time?!" Isogai gapped as Koro-sensei started flapping said wings.

"Actually looks kinda cool," Maehara commented.

"Thallium acetate," Koro-sensei took the last test tube. "Interesting. And the last one..."

Their teacher was almost brought to his knees immediately after drinking the last mixture. He groaned in pain, holding where they assume his stomach was.

"Uh oh!"

"Not sure I wanna see this!"

Everything went quiet as Koro-sensei stopped groaning like it never happened. His face was now completely white, with all the growths caused by the other poisons gone, and his smile was gone, only a small, thin line in its place.

"Aqua regia," their teacher's voice was strained. "That's all they do to me, huh?"

"That's boring."

"This just keeps getting weirder and weirder."

"I don't like this look, it's creeping me out."

"So poison turns him into an emoticon?"

"If you hate me, I understand," Koro-sensei waited for his students to finish their comments. "But please, don't hate assassination."

"What is that even supposed to mean?!"

"Also, young lady," Koro-sensei change back to normal himself. "As your teacher, I can't overlook the fact that you handled toxic substances unsupervised."

"Yes, sir," Okuda lowered her head. "Sorry, sir."

"Don't worry, I have an idea," Koro-sensei reassured her. "Do you have time after school today? We can research a poison that can kill me together!"

"Okay!" she perked up.

"That doesn't sound like that's going to end in success, if you ask me," Kayano sighed. "She's going to make poison... with the poison's target."

"Might get some good notes out of it, at least," Moonshore also sighed, seated across from her.

_____

After school that day, Koro-sensei and Okuda stood at a table in the science lab, the setting sun their only light.

"Okie Dokie," Koro-sensei directed. "Now add the ethanol to it. And be extra careful, don't breathe in the fumes."

"Got it," Okuda took a dropper and added the ethanol to the mixture. She then set the tube in a beaker of liquid.

"It's a shame you're enthusiasm for chemistry doesn't extend to other subjects."

"Everything else seems to go over my head," Okuda let out a dull laugh. "Especially when it comes to Language Arts and stuff. It's no wonder I was transferred to Class E. I never know the right thing to say; the words don't come out or I get them all turned around. Tell me to express myself and I seize up. I never know what the right answer is.

"It's okay," Okuda heard Koro-sensei's hum. "I don't mind so much. At least with math and science, there's always a right answer. Everything's spelled out for you. They're concise. No double meanings, no weird feelings, no worrying that someone will take your words the wrong way. It makes perfect sense, so I don't need beautiful words or to think about complicated emotions."

"I see the appeal," her teacher looked down at her, expression unreadable. "Tell you what, Okuda. I have a special homework assignment just for you."

"Remember, though," Koro-sensei wrote down a formula on extra paper and handed it to her. "Safety first."

_____

The bell tolled for school to begin as Okuda showed the other's her new poison.

"Um, okay," Kayano asked, unsure. "So he really asked you to bring the poison to class?"

"Yeah," Okuda cradled the florence flask filled with a bright red, semi-transparent chemical. "He said the stuff in this flask should work like a charm."

"He even drew a manga of the safety guidelines for proper use and storage," Moonshore held the assignment paper, looking over the formula and instructions. "I'm impressed, going the extra mile yet again."

"I know he's unconventional and all," Sugino looked at the paper over his shoulder. "But giving us the goods on a poison that will kill him?"

"Nice, right?" Okuda beamed. "I think it's his way of encouraging me. It's easier to understand a manga. I can focus on my strengths."

"Good morning, everyone! Take your seats, please."

"Oh, there he is," Kayano whispered as Koro-sensei walked in. "Why don't you give it to him?"

"Here it is, sir!" Okuda happily ran up to her target. "Just like you asked."

"Ah, nice work," he took the flask from her. "Well, here's to your health, children. Salud!"

Koro-sensei popped the cork off and downed the poison, just like yesterday. He gasped as he finished it, his face turning dark and eyes beaming red. He began to laugh maniacally, veins popping out all over him.

"Thank you, Okuda," Koro-sensei's voice was deep and gravelly. "Thank you very much, indeed. This concoction is precisely what I needed to level up!"

"Wait, you..." Okuda stood shocked. "I don't-- ah!"

She shielded her face as their teacher's tentacles started to flail around, glowing a faint red. With a scream, Koro-sensei exploded, and when the dust settled... he lay a now silver, blobby sludge on his podium.

"He melted?!" the class screamed as their teacher let out a happy sigh.

"You didn't think that was a poison, did you?" Koro-sensei lifted the lump that was probably his head, voice squeaky. "On the contrary, I had you whip up a special tonic designed to increase my fluidity!"

Koro-sensei then bust outward, his silver goops flying into Kataoka's desk. She pushed her chair away, staring at her teacher.

"In liquid form, I can fit comfortably into the tightest nooks and crannies."

"What are you doing in there?" Kataoka now glared at her teacher.

"Best of all, I lose none of my speed!"

Kataoka jumped as Koro-sensei sped out of her desk, beginning to fly around the room at, at least, half speed. The students stood up from their desks, their eyes almost able to track his movement, and drew their knives. They tried to hit him as he passed, but Koro-sensei was still too fast.

"Go ahead!" he taunted. "Let's see if you can kill me now!"

"Hey, it was hard enough before!" Maehara yelled, trying to both dodge and stab their teacher. "There's no way we can hit you when you keep hiding in the ceiling and underneath the floorboards!"

"I never killed a liquid metal slime in that game either..." Kanzaki stumbled back as Koro-sensei flew by her.

"What in the world did you give him?!" Kayano screamed at Okuda.

"You tricked me!" Okuda shouted as their teacher stopped, hanging from a corner of the ceiling. "That's not fair!"

"Fair?" Koro-sensei hummed, looking down at her. "Verbal deception is a vital part of the successful assassin's toolkit."

"What are you talking about, sir?" Moonshore asked, everyone calming down.

"Approaching the target so naively is a good way to fail at your mission," Koro-sensei explained. "Even the deadliest of poisons is useless if one can't persuade the mark to drink it.

"Moonshore, say you wanted to poison me," he continued as he melted down the wall into a puddle on the floor. "How might you go about it?"

"Me?" Moonshore hadn't expected the question. "Well, let me think... I'd probably put it in something you liked, then, I guess, I would offer it to you as a gift."

"Excellent," Koro-sensei flowed across the floor to his discarded robes. "You see, to deceive someone, you have to get inside their heads, know what they respond to. Use language creatively.

"In poisoning, as in life," Koro-sensei slipped under his robes, returning to his normal shape underneath. "The key to success is communication. Your chemistry skills will come in handy in the future, but you'll need to work on your communication skills.

"Because one way or another," he stood up, looking at his student. "You're going to have to explain your work so that others can understand it."

"Yes..." Okuda smiled at the realization of the lesson. "I understand!"

"This isn't just about assassination," Firehair laughed loudly, now standing next to Moonshore as everyone started to happily chatter. "Nice move, teach."

_Leave it to Koro-sensei. To him, even a student trying to poison him is still, first and foremost, a student. We're still far from being the skilled assassins who can kill Koro-sensei._

_____

"I see..." Karasuma put a hand on his hip as he listened to the person on the other side of the phone. "But don't you think... that might frighten the students?"

"Karasuma..." his superior sighed. "What's worse? Frightening the students? Or panicking the entire world?"

"But..."

"This is an order!" his superior hissed. "We don't believe those children are capable of killing him."

"So..." Karasuma gave. "What is this... operative... like?"

"Very skilled... Eleven confirmed around the world. We're sending in a real professional..."

At that same moment, in a dark hotel room, was an elven woman. She straddled her target, him lying limp beneath her. She licked her still smoking gun. Getting up, she straightened out her preserver silk nightgown and began picking up her discarded clothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *screaming* I know this is late and I'm sorry! I had my first college class on Wednesday and I went into a slump from sheer social exhaustion until Friday. When I started writing this I keep getting dizzy and had to lay down a lot, and basically slept all Saturday.  
> Anyway, Peacemaker is being introduced next chapter! And I realized that they put her introduction before Okuda's assassination attempt in the anime, how dare. It's like how they left out the chapter about Maehara, so unnecessary.  
> And that's the end of volume one, so I finally get to stop bending the covers of this one too often.


End file.
